Hampden woman injured in rollover crash on Pushaw Road in Glenburn

GLENBURN – Along a stretch of Pushaw Road that residents said is dangerous, a car left the road Thursday and struck a rock and stump outcropping, flipping over and injuring the driver.

Carly Filanowski, 24, of Hampden was taken to St. Joseph Hospital in Bangor to be treated for cuts and abrasions and for severe pain to her right ankle, Penobscot County Sheriff’s Deputy Jared Austin said. X-rays were expected to be taken to determine whether the ankle was broken.

Authorities are investigating what led to the late afternoon accident, including whether alcohol was involved. A witness reported smelling alcohol coming from Filanowski’s breath, officials said. A blood sample was taken from her at the hospital as part of the accident’s investigation.

Filanowski denied driving the Toyota Avalon, but a witness reported seeing only one person come out of the car. Authorities searched the area anyway and didn’t find anyone, Austin said. A passing truck driver stopped to help Filanowski out of the car from the passenger side.

The accident occurred shortly before 4 p.m. across the street from Limited Motors about three-quarters of a mile before the Orono Road, near a sharp curve and hill. It’s a stretch of road where the shoulders are narrow and on one side the road forms a deep and sometimes crumbling lip on the shoulder.

Lt. Dan West of the Glenburn Fire Department lives diagonally across from where the car came to rest on its roof. Hearing the commotion outside, he ran to the front window and saw the car standing straight up, its front end to the ground.

“I looked out the window, and at that moment, I saw the car end-up in the woods,” he said.

It was an all-too-familiar scene for local residents, who said the conditions of the road and 45-mph speed limit lead to many accidents and even more close calls.

Brian Hastey, 48, lives off in the woods about 1,000 feet from where the accident occurred, and still heard the accident and what preceded it. He was in his mobile home using his computer when he heard the squealing of tires and the heavy metal crunch.

“I knew that sound from having heard that many times before,” he said.

Hastey and Kevin Paschal, a neighbor and vice chairman of the Glenburn Town Council, said the speed limit is too fast to begin with and is largely ignored. Pulling out of their driveways is a dangerous prospect, they said.

“We’re putting our lives in danger just standing here talking to you,” Paschal said while standing along the roadside where the overturned car remained, between his property and that of a neighbor’s.

Hastey remembered a winter 10 to 15 years ago when a motor vehicle hit a snowbank and sailed over the hood of his car as he was leaving his driveway.

That no one has died there is surprising, they said.

It’s not an enforcement issue, Paschal insisted, rather the speed limit needs to be reduced, giving motorists more time to see oncoming traffic or pedestrians, as well as decreasing the stopping distances needed in an emergency.

“It’s a death trap,” Paschal said.