As Police Chief Steve Barker searched for anyone injured in the three-vehicle accident on Wilson Street early Friday afternoon, he saw one motorist covered in blood, or was it?

The impact of the accident had dented cars and sent debris all over the road. Clutching her arm, the driver of the rear-most car got out, her face and clothing discolored by a reddish substance.

“Your mind automatically says blood,” Barker said later Friday.

Seeing this, Barker reasoned that the driver had received cuts from the accident and he called for a rescue unit.

Barker then ushered the woman to the side of the road, telling her “go sit on the sidewalk, sit beside your car,” so she would get off her feet. He tried to reassure her, telling her, “help is on the way.”

But the fluid on the woman’s arm felt cold to the touch and sticky. Barker’s mind began to piece together the things he had seen in the 15 to 20 seconds he had been on the scene. Inside the vehicle the fluid was all over the dashboard and ceiling. And it was melting.

Police now say that one or more ice drinks – like Dunkin’ Donuts Coolattas – were inside the vehicle and the impact sprayed the liquid throughout the car.

The accident, which occurred about 2:20 p.m. when traffic resumed after waiting for a train to pass on Wilson Street, remains under investigation, police said. A vehicle heading west rear-ended one vehicle in front of it and pushed it into the rear end of a third vehicle, according to police.

Barker was headed east on Wilson Street and about seven or eight cars from the impact ahead of him when he saw a large cloud of dust coming from that direction. He first thought that a leaf blower was the cause of the cloud, but when traffic didn’t move and people started getting out of their vehicles, Barker realized that it was an accident.

Speed and driver inattention were being attributed as factors Friday in a motorcycle accident in Orrington where a New Canada man lost control of his bike and drove into the woods.

Justin Masse, 21, suffered a broken leg and injuries to his hip and ankle and was taken to Eastern Maine Medical Center.Masse and two friends were headed back to Brewer on the Kings Mountain Road early Friday evening when Masse approached a sharp curve in the road, reported Sgt. Troy Morton of the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Department. The curve, near the East Bucksport Road, is almost a perfect “L” in shape, Morton said.

Masse was apparently unfamiliar with the area and had looked back to see where his two friends were. Instead of turning right, Masse lost control of his 2000 Suzuki 750 and continued straight into a wooded area, crashing into brush and stumps.

Masse was wearing a helmet and protective clothing, Morton said.

An injured black bear and her cubs prompted Penobscot County Sheriff’s deputies to send some Eddington residents back into their homes and to move traffic on its way along Route 9 Thursday night.

The mother bear had been struck by an Eddington woman near Fox Lane and the animal ran off, leaving the woman, her boyfriend and her son uninjured but the car they were in heavily damaged, reported Sgt. Troy Morton of the sheriff’s department.

Before meeting with the motorist, Mandy Martin, Morton checked the area of the accident and also couldn’t find any signs of the bear. After interviewing Martin, he returned and found that a line of traffic had stopped for what at first must have appeared to have been an injured dog in the road. It turned out to be a bear cub.

Unseen in the darkness, but heard, was the mother bear; her high-pitched screams trying to reach her three cubs. Morton estimates that the mother was only about 15 feet from him, and unknown to him was that she was seriously injured.

In addition to the one injured cub in the road, deputies had seen another cub in the area and one had climbed a tree, near a cruiser.

“My biggest fear was, obviously, the retaliation of the mother, trying to protect her babies,” Morton said Friday.

The noises brought neighbors out, but Morton and deputies Tom Burgess and Jon Carson were on hand to usher them back into their homes as well as contain the crying bear cub in the tree until wardens could arrive.

Warden Dave Georgia secured the injured cub in a cage and set about to capture the cub in a tree, and then placed it in the cage.

The mother was found in a neighbor’s yard in a rock pile, its injuries prompted authorities to put it down. The third cub wasn’t found, although Morton said it had been hoped it would return before they left.

The injured cub was taken to a wildlife rehabilitator, Morton said.

– Compiled by NEWS reporter Doug Kesseli