Baldacci wants more I-295 patrols in bad weather

AUGUSTA – Gov. John Baldacci wants Maine Public Safety Commissioner Michael Cantara to boost patrols during inclement weather to slow down motorists on Interstate 295, where there were two fatal pileups on back-to-back weekends.

Something must be done to get drivers to ease up on the gas pedal, said Baldacci, who came upon the scene of one of the pileups Friday night.

“During times like that, we want to beef up patrols and enforcement just for people’s safety, frankly,” Baldacci told WCSH-TV. “I mean, such tragedies have happened two weeks in a row.”

A 9-year-old boy died from injuries he received on Oct. 7 when a car spun across the median of I-295 into oncoming traffic in Falmouth during a rainy rush hour. A week later, a Skowhegan man was killed when the same thing happened Friday night in Yarmouth.

All told, eight people, including three who were killed in a pileup on U.S. Route 1 in Brunswick, died on Maine’s highways during the rainy stretch of weather, officials said.

State police already are aware of problems on I-295.

In August, Col Craig Poulin of the Maine State Police held a news conference in Yarmouth to announce that state troopers were stepping up patrols between Brunswick and Scarborough, the most heavily traveled stretch of highway in the state, after fatal crashes that killed five.

Other than the highway deaths, Maine was largely spared from the brunt of damage from the latest deluge during the prolonged rainy spell.

The heavy rains resulted in minor flooding along the Kennebec, Presumpscot and Androscoggin rivers. About 6,700 Central Maine Power customers were without electricity at the height of the wind-driven storm Saturday night, a spokesman said.