Stuck tractor-trailer blocks traffic on Route 2

It was a situation many people could empathize with in these days of snow and ice, just on a grander scale.

A tractor-trailer driver looking for the location where he was to pick up his cargo pulled into the parking lot at the Pilots Grill in Bangor on Wednesday and became stuck in the snow; really stuck.

The empty trailer completely blocked off Route 2 for almost an hour, prompting police to reroute inbound traffic down Hildreth Street and onto Doane Street while outbound traffic made use of the restaurant’s parking lot to bypass the truck, said Bangor police Officer Kevin MacLaren.

The truck driver, who did not identify himself, said he made a wide turn into the parking lot to avoid hitting a car that had cut him off.

With nothing inside to weigh it down – the driver of the Swift trailer was to pick up paper products at a nearby Georgia-Pacific warehouse – there was little traction, and try as he could, the driver couldn’t move his vehicle.

MacLaren said some good Samaritans showed up and helped shovel some of the snow. A front-end loader made a major dent in the snow pile where it could, once the cab was detached, but a snow mound still remained by the back tires and the wheels made some progress forward before coming to a halt. The lack of forward progress was rectified when the front-end loader, positioned behind the trailer, gave the behemoth a steady push that was needed.

MacLaren then helped the driver, uncertain of his final destination, find the warehouse, which was off Hildreth Street.

With police closing in on him, 22-year-old Duane McCarter climbed partway up a fence behind Bangor City Hall on Sunday night, then stopped. On the other side of the fence was a 30- to 40-foot drop to the pavement.

Wanted on two warrants, McCarter changed his mind about continuing over the fence and climbed down instead, resuming briefly a foot chase with police, reported Bangor police Officer Russell Twaddell, one of several police officers in the area looking for McCarter.

But with Twaddell behind him and Sgt. Larry Weber approaching him from below, McCarter gave up the chase, and sat down in a snow bank, where he waited to be arrested, according to the police report. McCarter was taken into custody on a warrant for failure to pay a fine for a conviction on operating a motor vehicle after suspension and on another warrant for theft, according to the police report.

McCarter’s flight from police began a short time after police were called to 44 Boyd St., where a mother was arguing with her daughter over providing refuge for McCarter, who was known to them to be wanted on warrants. The police arrived, but McCarter was gone.

He was spotted in the area of Boyd and York streets but had a substantial lead on police and managed to elude them for the moment. Then at 9:25 p.m., nearly an hour after police were first called to Boyd Street, a police officer in a cruiser stopped a Penobscot Taxi cab near Broadway and Penobscot Street.

McCarter was inside the cab and jumped out, and Twaddell saw him running across Broadway, then French Street. McCarter and Twaddell headed down onto Park Street toward Bangor City Hall and the fence.

– Compiled by NEWS reporter Doug Kesseli