PORTLAND – A Bowdoin teenager has been released on $1,000 bail while he awaits trial on felony charges linked to a fatal car accident last spring in Brunswick.

Joshua Wing, 19, was arraigned Thursday in Cumberland County Superior Court in Portland on charges of manslaughter, aggravated assault and aggravated operating under the influence of alcohol.

“We charged him because recklessness caused Mr. Profenno’s death,” said Matthew Tice, Cumberland County assistant district attorney. “A combination of alcohol and speed caused the accident.”

Tice said Wing tried to get his small car airborne on the Durham Road, causing the accident shortly after midnight May 16 that resulted in the death of Jeffrey Profenno, 22, of Durham and injured another passenger.

Wing had a blood alcohol level of 0.16, which is twice the legal limit for adult drivers. There is no legal blood alcohol level for minors. Wing has no criminal record, but he was stopped for driving 55 mph in a 35-mph zone in September 2001. His license was suspended until Dec. 28.

Wing could not be reached for comment. His lawyer did not return a phone call Thursday.

Profenno’s death is part of what authorities call an epidemic of fatal accidents involving young drivers and their passengers in Maine so far this year. As of Aug. 23, 37 people between the ages of 16 and 24 have been killed in car accidents, one fewer than in all of 2001. Among the crashes this year, three Portland teenagers were killed Jan. 13 when a car driven by Michael O’Brien, 19, flipped over a guardrail on Tukey’s Bridge. Police say O’Brien was drunk and driving more than 100 mph at the time of the accident.