Crash leaves Eddington teen dead, 4 hurt Police pursue five Brewer High School students in pickup truck through three towns

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BANGOR – Scores of teen-agers and adults gathered throughout the day Sunday in a Webster Avenue yard, placing mourning flowers or carving their initials in a pine tree where a truck carrying five Brewer High School students crashed after a police chase, killing the driver and injuring the others.

Mark Reynolds Jr., 16, of Eddington had been driving a blue 1983 Chevrolet pickup when he failed to stop at the end of a T-shaped intersection at Norway Road and Webster Avenue at 12:44 a.m. Saturday, police said. Reynolds was driving with a learner’s permit.

Reynolds apparently mistook a driveway directly across from Webster Avenue as a continuation of the street, said Chris Noyes, 16, of Bangor, a passenger in the truck who broke his right hand and suffered cuts to his face.

Before the teens knew what had happened, they had traveled across nearly 30 yards of lawn and struck a pine tree directly on the driver’s side.

Police said Reynolds died in the accident, and passenger Zach Hornick, 16, of Clifton was in the intensive care unit at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor on Sunday evening.

Jeff Madden, 17, of Brewer, who was riding between Reynolds and Noyes in the front of the truck, broke his jaw in two places and lost some teeth. Police said Noyes and Madden were wearing seat belts.

Stephen Baxter, 16, of Brewer, who was riding with Hornick in the bed of the truck, suffered minor injuries from the accident, straining muscles in his right shoulder.

Madden, Noyes and Baxter were released from EMMC on Saturday.

Friday night had begun typically for the five students, who were friends and hung out together on weekends.

The teens had been at a party in Eddington when they left in the pickup, according to police. Police said the teens borrowed the truck, but would not give more details. Asked whether alcohol was involved, a Brewer police officer would say only that “substances” were involved.

After midnight, the group left in the truck and wound up behind J.R. Redemption, located at 151 S. Main St. in Brewer, after trying to get out of sight of a Brewer police cruiser they spotted.

“The cop put his lights on and he got scared and didn’t want to pull over because he didn’t have his license,” Noyes said.

Brewer police Officer John Knapp noticed the vehicle behind the redemption center and pulled behind the truck to find out what it was doing there, Sgt. Chris Martin of the Brewer Police Department said. “There were no residences in the area and there had been some crime problems in the area so [Knapp] investigated.”

When Reynolds left the parking lot and headed north on South Main Street, Knapp turned on his lights and sirens, Martin said.

Reynolds drove the truck onto Interstate 395 toward Bangor, obeying the speed limit, Martin said. Once in Bangor, the truck exited onto Route 202 toward Hampden, Martin said.

“We just didn’t want to stay in Brewer. We wanted to get away from the cop,” Noyes said. “We didn’t think he’d follow us all of the way.”

Once on Route 202, Reynolds began to drive faster, Martin said. Bangor and Hampden police had been alerted, and when the truck reached 80 mph, the Brewer officers called off the pursuit. Hampden police laid out a spike mat near the Coldbrook Road intersection with Route 202.

Then, Reynolds turned the vehicle around and headed back toward Bangor, Martin said. With Reynolds once again driving within the speed limit, Brewer police attempted to get one cruiser in the front and one in the back of the vehicle when they met again.

The object of the move was to make sure that the teens knew the police were after them, Martin said. He said police quickly pulled back when the truck began to move aggressively toward the cruisers.

Police said they believe the two front-seat passengers attempted to stop the truck during the chase by trying to turn the ignition switch off and taking the engine out of gear.

Reynolds drove the truck back onto Interstate 395, then onto northbound Interstate 95, Martin said. Just a third of a mile later, the truck left the interstate at Hammond Street in Bangor, speeded up and took the first right turn off Hammond, onto Norway Road, a quiet residential section.

“All the cruisers had stopped at the beginning of Norway and were beginning to talk about the chase with the truck out of sight when they heard the crash,” Martin said. “The chase only lasted 11 minutes.”

When police arrived minutes later, at 152 Webster Ave., the front end of the truck was on fire, Martin said. Officials helped to get the fire under control while treating the teens for their injuries.

Officials had to use an extrication device to remove Reynolds from the pickup, Martin said.

Police were surprised to find five teens near the truck when they arrived, Martin said.

“The officers did not know of the two in the bed of the truck,” Martin said. The two teens, Baxter and Hornick, had been lying down so police would not see them.

The chase was the third for the Brewer Police Department in the last month and a half. A car chase on March 23 resulted in an accident in which no one was seriously injured. In March, police also had called off a pursuit when speeds reached more than 90 mph. Police called off a chase on April 6 when speeds exceeded 130 mph.

“For some reason, I don’t know why, we’ve seen an increasing number of pursuits in the past month and a half,” Martin said. “We try to thoroughly review the circumstances behind each one. Officers have followed protocol in each pursuit thoroughly.”

In the meantime, members of the Brewer High School crisis intervention team will be available at the school from 9 a.m. to noon today. It is the first day of the school’s weeklong April vacation.

Reynolds, a sophomore, had been a linebacker for the Brewer High School football team, had played for the school’s junior varsity basketball team and was training to be part of the wrestling team next year, his father, Mark Reynolds Sr., said.

“If anything good comes out of this, kids should know to pull over when the police are trying to pull you over, even if you’re scared, pull right over,” his father said Sunday night. “Parents should hug their kids a little extra tonight because you never know when they’ll be gone.”