Two injured in crash between car, DOT trucks Speed, road crest cited as factors in accident

WESLEY – Two people were injured Tuesday when the driver of a 2004 Chrysler Sebring tried to thread her convertible between two Department of Transportation trucks, striking both and landing in the ditch, Maine State Police said.

They were treated at Calais Regional Hospital and later released.

The accident happened on Route 9, across from the Wesley Volunteer Fire Department and the Maine DOT garage.

Injured in the Sebring were the driver, Rachelle Brooks, 41, and her passenger, Boyd Brooks, 47, both of Robbinston. Rachelle Brooks was taken to the hospital with head injuries, and Boyd Brooks was taken to the same hospital with injuries to his leg.

The driver of the DOT’s 2000 Chevrolet pickup truck, David Nuttall, 54, of Charlotte, and the driver of the 1995 GMC DOT dump truck, Ralph Hooper, 48, of Robbinston, were not injured.

Trooper David Barnard said the pickup truck was in the breakdown lane facing east toward Calais, when the dump truck pulled out of the DOT garage.

He said the dump truck was already in the eastbound lane when Brooks crested the hill, saw the two vehicles and tried to go between them. “The [vehicle] struck the pickup truck first and then struck the plow rigging on the dump truck,” the trooper said. The air bags deployed on the Chrysler Sebring. Barnard said speed and the crest in the road were factors in the accident.

The trooper estimated damage to the Sebring at $11,000 and the pickup truck at around $400. Damage to the dump truck was around $3,000.

Downeast EMS of Alexander and the Wesley Fire Department assisted at the scene.

The incident remains under investigation.