Icy storm sweeps through Maine Boy, 16, killed in Houlton accident

HOULTON – A Houlton teenager died and 10 other people were hospitalized Sunday morning following a two-vehicle crash on snow-covered U.S. Route 2A.

According to Houlton Police Chief Daniel Soucy, 16-year-old Alan Belyea of Houlton died of massive trauma shortly after arriving at Houlton Regional Hospital. Two others were said to be in serious condition.

Police said road and weather conditions contributed to the accident, in which 46-year-old Brian Dow of Houlton lost control of a 1991 minivan on the Bangor Road, Route 2A. The vehicle crossed the centerline and skidded into the path of an eastbound 1998 pickup truck driven by Ronald Suitter, 45, of Linneus.

Soucy said the roads were snow-covered and slippery when the accident occurred at 9:58 a.m. He said the van was struck broadside by the pickup truck, almost in T-bone fashion.

Three Houlton ambulances and private vehicles were used to transport the injured to the hospital. Injured were Dow, Beth Dow, Stephanie Sennet, 15, Amber Dow, 16, Benjamin Dow, 14, Andrew Dow, 16, Curtis Swimm, 11, and Isaiah Belyea, 6, all of Houlton, and Suitter and Robin Suitter, 39, of Linneus.

According to a hospital administrator, Barbara Bossie, two of the injured, a 6-year-old and a 30-year-old, were transferred to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor Sunday afternoon. The younger patient was listed in critical condition, and the older patient was said to be in stable condition.

Four others – three males and one female – were treated and admitted to the Houlton hospital. They were all listed in stable condition.

Four of the injured, two males and two females, were treated and released from the medical facility, Bossie said just before 5 p.m. Sunday.

Houlton police were assisted at the scene by Maine State Police, the Aroostook County Sheriff’s Department, and fire and rescue personnel from the Houlton Fire and Ambulance departments.

Soucy said traffic was stopped for a considerable amount of time to allow the removal of all the injured people.