Woman hospitalized after car accident

A car, an SUV and a tractor-trailer met in a chain reaction collision Thursday evening in Newburgh.

At about 6 p.m. a red Subaru passenger car and a gray Toyota 4-Runner stopped at the intersection of Route 69 and Route 202. The SUV was northbound, the car southbound.

Maine State Police Trooper Doug Franklin said Joseph Pelonski, 82, of Huntington, N.Y., looked to the left and to the right, then pulled his Subaru through the intersection, never seeing the Freightliner tractor-trailer coming up Route 202 in the eastbound lane. “They never stood a chance,” Franklin said. The rig was only 100 feet away when the car pulled out.

Franklin said driver Raymond Preston, 40, of Winterport swerved the rig to avoid the Subaru, but still hit it in the rear. The wrecked car spun almost 180 degrees and collided with the SUV. The tractor-trailer ended up in the ditch, also demolished, with a dislocated axle.

Pelonski was up and walking around after the accident, but his wife, Dorothy, 86, had to be taken to Eastern Maine Medical Center for possible broken bones. Wendy Dunlea, 30, of Carmel, driving the Toyota, complained of neck pain. She said her SUV had side-impact air bags, but none deployed when the Subaru hit it in the front left corner.