Auburn man uninjured in fatal turnpike crash
Aug. 5—An Auburn man escaped injury in an early Thursday crash on the Maine Turnpike that killed a Caribou man, police said.
Maine Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Shannon Moss wrote in a media statement Thursday that police are continuing to investigate the 12:37 a.m. crash, involving a passenger car and a tractor-trailer truck at mile-marker 2 in the southbound lane in Kittery.
The car was driven by Caleb Ewing, 29, of Caribou, who was pronounced dead at the scene.
The truck was owned and driven by Joshua Stone, 46, of Auburn.
Both vehicles sustained "extensive damage," Moss wrote.
Police believe Ewing entered the turnpike in Kittery and traveled in the wrong direction going northbound in the southbound lane.
Stone's tractor-trailer truck, which was hauling bottled water at the time, was traveling southbound. He took evasive action when he spotted Ewing, but couldn't avoid the collision, Moss wrote.
Ewing's vehicle struck the side of the tractor-trailer truck, ruptured the fuel tank and caused diesel fuel to spill out onto the roadway, according to Moss.
Police closed the roadway to one lane for hours while they investigated, enabling crews to remove the vehicles and re-open the roadway.
Assisting were Maine State Police's Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Unit, Kittery Fire Department, Kittery Police Department, York Police and Fire departments and the Department of Environmental Protection.
