CARMEL – A young boy was taken to a Bangor hospital Wednesday afternoon after the full-size four-wheeler he was operating was struck by a sport utility vehicle as he drove across Irish Road in Carmel.

Daniel Bragg, 7, was riding the four-wheeler on his parent’s Irish Road property when his mother reportedly stepped inside the house, according to Deputy Sean McCue of the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Department. The unsupervised child then drove the machine across the paved road. When he tried to cross back, he was struck by a 1999 Jeep Cherokee driven by 32-year-old Misty Galvin of Hudson.

“She saw the four-wheeler on the side of the road and slowed down to be on the safe side,” McCue said. “But she didn’t expect it to shoot out into the road.”

McCue said the SUV was traveling at about 40 miles an hour when it struck the four-wheeler. The accident happened at about 2 p.m.

Daniel, the son of Darren and Melissa Bragg, was wearing a helmet, but the force of the impact knocked it off his head, McCue said. The helmet landed about 50 feet away from the accident site. Somehow the child ended up underneath the ATV, straddled by the tires, McCue said. Galvin and Melissa Bragg managed to lift the machine off him.

Daniel Bragg was alert, crying and panicked at the scene, McCue said, but no serious bleeding or injury was apparent. He was taken by ambulance to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, where a supervisor said Wednesday evening he was in fair condition.

McCue said no charges were pending against anyone involved in the accident.

“My biggest concern is for a child operating a full-size ATV with no supervision,” he said.