Garland woman one of eight victims of fatal vehicle accidents over last week

BRUNSWICK – Three people, including a Garland woman, were killed in a five-vehicle crash during heavy rains Saturday, bringing to eight the number of people killed on Maine roads in a little over a week.

A man, a woman and a boy were killed in the accident after their vehicle crossed into oncoming traffic and hit four other cars on U.S. Route 1 at about 10:30 a.m., said Brunswick Police Chief Jerry Hinton.

Officials identified the victims as Joshua Snyder, 23, of Bath, 22-year-old Bridget Stutzke of Garland and 1-year-old Jakob Stutzke.

The crash was the second fatal, multivehicle accident

in southern Maine in two days.

During a downpour Friday night, a southbound vehicle crossed the median strip into the northbound lanes of Interstate 295 in Yarmouth. Waneta Veneziano, 84, of Skowhegan was killed in the crash while riding in the rear seat of a car that was struck by the oncoming vehicle.

Another four people were killed in accidents last weekend and Monday on I-295 in Falmouth, on Interstate 95 in York and on Route 5 in Dayton.

State police say eight highway deaths in eight days is unusually high, but they add that the total number of highway fatalities in Maine is down 25 percent so far this year from last year.

“We’re still running well below where we were this time last year,” said Public Safety Department spokesman Stephen McCausland.