BELFAST – A Belmont teen was flown to a Bangor hospital with broken legs Wednesday after his car crashed into an oncoming trash truck.

Joshua A. Roberts, 16, of Searsmont Road was on his way to classes at Belfast Area High School shortly before 7 a.m., said Belfast police Officer Howard Dakin.

Roberts usually takes his younger brother with him, but on Wednesday he was driving alone.

“He was very lucky,” Dakin said. “If he had [had] a passenger with him, the passenger would have been killed.”

The collision took place on Route 3 near the Londonderry Inn.

Roberts was traveling toward the city in a 1991 Geo Metro convertible when he passed a tractor-trailer hauling an empty tanker.

Roberts made the pass directly into the path of an oncoming 2000 Kenworth trash truck driven by Bent A. Baker, 23, of Frankfort.

Roberts attempted to avoid a collision by jerking his steering wheel quickly to the right.

When he did so, the car lifted on two wheels, left the road and went up an embankment, then shot back across the highway directly into the path of the oncoming truck. The truck hit the car broadside, jamming it under its front bumper. Rescuers had to use a cutting device to remove Roberts from his crumpled convertible. Baker was uninjured.

Dakin estimated the damage to the car at $2,000. Damage to the truck was estimated at $7,000. He said Roberts was conscious throughout the ordeal and that he told Officer Brian Lunt that he was driving about 60 mph. The speed limit on Route 3 drops from 55 mph to 45 mph at the Londonderry Inn.

Roberts was taken by Belfast Ambulance to Waldo County General Hospital, where he was stabilized, then flown to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor.

Assisting Dakin with the investigation were Lunt, Sgt. Rosario Michaud and Detective Wendall Ward.

Waldo County Sheriff Scott Story handled the accident reconstruction and Maine State Police Trooper Mark Coleman conducted the commercial vehicle inspection.

The truck, owned by Wyndsaung Farm of Levant, passed the inspection, said Dakin. The accident remained under investigation Wednesday.