Slowing traffic tilts truck hauling fries

Southbound traffic just before mile marker 182 on Interstate 95 in Bangor was reduced to one lane for more than nine hours after a tractor-trailer went off the road and into the median around 8:15 p.m. Wednesday.

The driver in front of the truck in the passing lane wanted to take the exit for Interstate-395, so he slowed down in an attempt not to miss the exit. The driver next to him in the travel lane did the same, and the tractor-trailer couldn’t stop.

Instead of colliding with the vehicle in the passing lane, Eric Chapman, 32, of Nova Scotia decided to put the truck off the road, Maine State Police Trooper Christopher Hashey said Thursday.

The truck ended up partially on its side, propped against the guardrail, Hashey said. The box container broke open slightly, but the load of frozen french fries it was carrying didn’t spill and had to be unloaded before the truck was turned upright.

The truck was towed around 5:30 a.m., Hashey said. Officers with the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office and Bangor police assisted at the scene. (Aimee Dolloff, BDN)