ALTON – A pair of bird hunters escaped serious injury Friday when the SUV in which they were riding crashed into the median between the northbound and southbound lanes of Interstate 95.

Driver Frederick Kimball, 57, of Caribou and his passenger, 53-year-old Mark Farquhar of Byron were taken to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor for treatment of minor injuries, according to Trooper Christopher Cookson of the state police.

A nursing supervisor at the hospital said at about 8:30 p.m. that both men had been treated and released.

The accident occurred at 2:45 p.m. near mile marker 200 in the northbound lanes of I-95, while Kimball and Farquhar were returning from a grouse-hunting trip in Durham,

Kimball told Cookson that he briefly lost consciousness because of an unspecified medical condition.

His 2003 Ford Explorer then traveled across the passing lane and off the edge of the highway, into a swampy median strip, where the vehicle became stuck in a clump of trees, Cookson said.

Both men were wearing their seat belts during the crash, Cookson said.

The trooper estimated damage to the SUV, which had to be hauled back to the road by a wrecker, at $3,000.

dgagnon@bangordailynews.net

990-8189