ELLSWORTH – One of two toddler girls critically injured Tuesday with their mother in a head-on collision on Route 1A died Wednesday, according to police.
Ashlynn Hatch died after she was taken off life support at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, Ellsworth police Officer Rick Roberts said Wednesday. She was 2 years old.
April Hatch, 25, and Raven Hatch, 3, remained in critical condition Wednesday at the Bangor hospital, according to police and hospital officials.
“They seem to think April will be OK, but they are not sure about the other [girl],” Roberts said.
The accident occurred around 8 a.m. Tuesday when April Hatch was driving a 1999 Ford Taurus to her family’s home in Clifton after having worked the overnight shift as a corrections officer at Hancock County Jail in Ellsworth, according to Ellsworth police Chief John DeLeo.
Hatch veered into the southbound lane, causing her car to collide with a 2003 International tractor-trailer truck delivering furniture to a Bar Harbor hotel.
Hatch and her husband, Stewart Hatch, had only one car and used it to ferry themselves to and from work while bringing their daughters along for the ride, DeLeo said Tuesday.
Hatch had been picked up at work by her husband and daughters and then had dropped her husband off at his job at Hinckley Co. in Trenton before she and the girls headed toward home, he said.
Police have not been able to interview Hatch but have speculated she may have fallen asleep at the wheel.
The driver of the truck, Ronnie Makamson, 46, of Maben, Miss., said Tuesday he did not have enough time to stop after Hatch’s car swerved into his lane.
Makamson was treated Tuesday for minor injuries at Maine Coast Memorial Hospital in Ellsworth and then released.
Hatch and her two daughters were flown by LifeFlight helicopter from Ellsworth to the Bangor hospital after the accident.
Both April Hatch and Makamson were wearing seat belts when their vehicles collided, according to Roberts. He said the two girls were strapped into child seats secured in the back seat of the car.
Hancock County Sheriff William Clark said Wednesday that his department, which includes the jail, has started a relief fund for the Hatch family at the Ellsworth branch of Bangor Savings Bank.
Hatch started working as a corrections officer part-time in March and went to full-time in May, the sheriff said.
Though she has only been there for a short time, Clark said, Hatch has bonded well with her night-shift co-workers.
Fewer officers work at the jail at night than during the day, he said, and they often have more time to get to know one another because the inmates are asleep and require less supervision.
The sheriff said Hatch’s co-workers have heard that her and her daughter’s injuries were serious. Jail Administrator Terry Robertson has been to the Bangor hospital to visit Hatch’s family, some of whom have traveled to Maine from out of state, he said.
“We’re trying to keep some kind of contact with the family,” Robertson said.
Employees at Hinckley, a company that makes luxury power and sailing yachts, have started collecting money to help the Hatches, according to Susan Shannon, human resources manager of the company. Stewart Hatch has been working for Hinckley for only a few months, she said.
Shannon said Wednesday the donations will be deposited into the relief fund.
“Our employees are rallying around as best as possible,” she said.
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