STEUBEN – Police said Thursday they aren’t sure why a car driven by an Ellsworth woman crossed the centerline on U.S. Route 1 and struck an oncoming 18-wheeler in heavy rain.

Alicia Morgan, 26, died in the crash at 4:40 p.m. Wednesday.

The driver of the truck, Alan Pressey, 52, of Pittsfield, was unharmed. But Pressey’s truck was pushed into a guardrail by the impact, then flipped onto its side and caught on fire because its fuel tank was torn.

Pressey escaped by kicking out a window after flames began entering the truck’s cab.

He had just picked up a load of 23 crushed cars in Whitneyville and was headed west.

The vehicles came to rest about 150 yards east of Mathews Country Store. Traffic was rerouted as Route 1 remained closed for seven hours.

Morgan was ejected from her 2002 Pontiac Sunfire, according to investigating officer Barry Curtis of the Maine State Police. She was not wearing her seat belt at the time of the crash.

“We don’t know what happened, why she drifted,” Curtis said Thursday. “The driver said he looked down and saw her hands squarely at the 10- and 2 o’clock positions. I also believe that she possibly could have survived the accident if she had been wearing her seat belt.”

The truck fire started immediately once the 18-wheeler overturned. The state Department of Environmental Protection was called in because of the fuel spill.

Five Maine State Police officers went to the accident scene: Sgts. Tim Varney and Kelly Barbee, plus Troopers Curtis, Carlton Small and Josh Haines. Chuck Matthews of the state police commercial vehicle division also assisted, as did the Steuben Volunteer Fire Department.

Morgan was rush by ambulance to Maine Coast Community Hospital in Ellsworth. From there she was taken to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, where she died.

She worked as an agent with Morgan Bayside Real Estate, the company owned by her parents, Bob and Marcia Morgan of Ellsworth.

Alicia Morgan was serving as vice president of the Hancock-Washington Board of Realtors. She had been planning to attend the annual meeting for the Ellsworth Area Chamber of Commerce on Friday.

Services for Morgan will be at 11 a.m. Monday at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Ellsworth. Visiting hours for the family will be from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Sunday at the Jordan Funeral Home in Ellsworth.