Woman, 56, faces OUI charge after driving wrong way on I-95

BANGOR – A Milford woman who reportedly drove several miles in the wrong direction on Interstate 95 and caused an accident late Tuesday afternoon was eventually caught and arrested on a charge of operating under the influence of intoxicants.

Wendy-Ann Rowe, 56, was taken to Penobscot County Jail after registering 0.25 on a blood alcohol test, according to Sgt. Sean Hashey of the Maine State Police.

Hashey said Rowe was “very lucky” not to have injured herself or others.

Rowe was caught by police in her Toyota RAV4 while stuck in traffic at the Broadway offramp of I-95 after a wild sequence of events that began around 5 p.m. when she began driving north in the southbound lane of the highway at Hogan Road.

A few miles north, she rammed into a vehicle involved in a previous accident that had pulled into the breakdown lane, police said.

Rowe continued driving north the wrong way despite the impact, which caused an estimated $3,000 in damage to her vehicle and an estimated $5,000 in damage to the parked vehicle.

Police believe she eventually got off the Interstate at the Stillwater Avenue exit in Orono, turned around, then headed south on I-95 in the correct lane.

Police attending the accident spotted Rowe’s vehicle as she passed the scene. Four agencies – state police, Veazie police, the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Department and Bangor police – eventually were involved in the incident, Hashey said.

Rowe was apprehended by Veazie and Bangor officers when her progress was halted by the line of traffic at the Broadway exit.

She was charged by Bangor police with OUI, by Veazie police with failure to stop for an officer, and by state police with leaving the scene of an accident. She was taken to Penobscot County Jail.

Hashey said “great teamwork” by police prevented Rowe from causing further damage.