WEST GARDINER – A motorist who was driving erratically before a fatal crash was having a diabetic reaction, state troopers said.

Justin Newbury, 33, of West Gardiner was killed as he drove alone in his sport utility vehicle on Interstate 295 on the Fourth of July. Tests showed he had no alcohol in his system, and investigators believe the erratic driving was related to his diabetes, state Trooper Marvin Hinkley said Wednesday.

Newbury’s mother, Helen Newbury, said the grief over her only child’s death was made worse by news reports that suggested her son might have been drinking. News reports also pointed out that he had several driving convictions.

“They caused us an awful lot of undue pain, because they didn’t wait for anything to come back from the test results,” she said. “We knew he was a diabetic for years. We knew he was not drinking. He was going to work.”

She said her son had suffered from diabetes since age 13 and took two kinds of insulin at least twice a day.