Truck involved in girl’s death to be analyzed

CARIBOU – Mechanical experts on Wednesday will analyze the farm truck involved in last Friday’s fatal school bus accident, police said Tuesday.

The experts will be looking for mechanical defects that may have caused the death of a 13-year-old Caribou Middle School pupil.

Earlier this week, Maine State Police accident reconstructionists were at the scene. Their report has not been completed, Caribou Police Officer Kevin St. Peter, one of the local investigators, said Tuesday.

Violette Labreck died Friday afternoon when she was struck by a farm truck after she got off a school bus on Route 89. She was the sole victim of the accident. The school bus, still half filled with pupils at the time, was not struck by the farm truck.

The girl’s funeral will be held at 11 a.m. today at the St. Joseph Catholic Church in Hamlin.

Violet LaBreck was one of two daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Labreck of Access Road in Caribou, which also is Route 89 that runs between Caribou and Limestone.

Timothy Rediker, 23, of Fort Fairfield was the driver of the 1985 Ford farm truck that turned to the right to avoid hitting the stopped school bus. The truck was equipped with a bulk box filled with grain.

According to police, Rediker was following the school bus east on Route 89 and could not stop. In an attempt to avoid hitting the bus, he went to the breakdown lane, where he struck the girl who was getting off the school bus.

The accident happened at the end of a long downhill curve. Rediker’s truck went off the road and down an embankment. The truck’s body detached from the truck frame, dumping the load of grain.

Rediker was not injured. He was operating a truck owned by C & D Farms of Mapleton and was bringing a load of oats to a milling facility at the Loring Commerce Center when the accident happened.

St. Peter also made a plea Tuesday for the return of a piece of equipment that was lost or taken when officers were reconstructing the scene last Sunday.

Missing is a surveyors prism, a three-inch-diameter orange instrument used by officers making a draft of the scene. The instrument, which was placed on the ground as a location point, was on the west side of Route 89.

St. Peter said police are looking for return of the instrument, no questions asked. They believe whoever may have taken it did not know what it was.

During the reconstruction, police saw a man on an all-terrain vehicle stop at the scene. Police believe the man had stopped to see a moose in the area.

The instrument may be returned to the Caribou Police Department.