Teen injured in Waltham accident

WALTHAM – A local girl was flown Thanksgiving morning to a Bangor hospital after she crashed her car on Route 179, according to the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department.

The girl, 17, was driving south on the highway around 8 a.m. when the slick road caused her car to go off the pavement and hit a tree, Deputy Robert Morang said. He did not identify the girl because police were still trying to notify her relatives, he said.

“The roads were covered in black ice and were very slippery,” Morang said.

The car, a 1997 Ford sedan, rolled once before it came to rest against the tree, according to the deputy. The girl was pinned between the vehicle and the tree but remained conscious while members of the Ellsworth Fire Department extricated her.

The girl was flown by LifeFlight helicopter to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, where she was still being evaluated Thursday afternoon, according to Morang. She had a head laceration and possible internal injuries, he said.

Morang said the fact that she did not lose consciousness at the accident scene is likely a good sign. He said the force of the accident bent the car frame around the tree.

Police don’t think the girl was driving at excessive speed. Road conditions were to blame, he said.

She was wearing a seat belt, and the car’s airbag was deployed during the accident. The car was destroyed, Morang said.

Besides Ellsworth, firefighters from Waltham and Eastbrook assisted at the scene, as did medical personnel with County Ambulance, Morang said.

btrotter@bangordailynews.net

460-6318