Family, pumpkin OK after Ellsworth accident

ELLSWORTH – A local family escaped with minor injuries and their pumpkin was unscathed Thursday afternoon after they were involved in a Route 1A accident while returning home from buying the Halloween gourd.

Their vehicle likely is demolished, however, and the highway had to be shut down for two hours as Bangor Hydro crews worked to repair a power line that fell across the road during the accident, Ellsworth police Officer Jeremy Cox said.

The pumpkin flew out the window of Patrick and Katrina Kane’s 2003 Chevrolet sport utility vehicle when the vehicle spun around on the highway and struck a guy wire and then a tree, according to Cox. Patrick Kane, 36, was driving the SUV south on the road around 1:30 p.m. when he crested a hill and came across an oncoming vehicle halfway in his lane, the officer said.

“The other vehicle never stopped,” Cox said.

Kane swerved to the right to avoid the other car and got the passenger-side wheels caught in the roadside sand, he said. The SUV then went back across the northbound lane of traffic and went off the opposite side of the road. There is no paved shoulder along the section of road where the accident occurred.

“It was the sand that got him,” Cox said.

With the Kanes were their 3-week-old daughter Ellie and their 4-year-old son Ethan. The children were strapped into car seats and were unharmed during the crash. Their parents, who were wearing seat belts, had only bumps and bruises, Cox said.

The car sustained extensive damage to its passenger side and the tops of two utility poles were snapped off in the accident, the officer said. Traffic between Bangor and Ellsworth was diverted onto Christian Ridge and Red Bridge roads while response crews worked at the scene.

The gourd, miraculously, ended up on the side of the road unscathed, according to Cox.

“The pumpkin made out,” he said.