Accident Reconstruction Network > News >August 2008

Accident Reconstruction News Article

Palermo crash injures man

PALERMO -- A Palermo man was taken by helicopter to a hospital with serious injuries after a two-car accident on Saturday that occurred on Route 3 east of the Palermo Consolidated School.

Police said LifeFlight had been dispatched to transport Robert Theberge, 49, of Palermo to Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston.

The call came in at 10:07 a.m.

State Trooper Shawn Porter, who assisted the Waldo County Sheriff's Office, said traffic was rerouted through Parmenter Road down to Nelson Lane and on to North Palermo Road. Route 3 was closed for about four hours, he said.

Porter said a Maine State Police team went out to reconstruct and document the accident.

Matt Curtis, a detective with the Waldo County Sheriff's Office, said it appears that Theberge, driving a 1995 Saturn, was attempting a U-turn and pulled in front of a 2005 Volvo driven by Paul Kelly, 38, of Wynnewood, Pa.

He said Kelly's car struck the driver's side of the front of Theberge's vehicle.

"Both vehicles continued off the road and down an embankment and came to rest in trees," Curtis said Saturday.

He said Theberge had to be extracted from his vehicle. A woman in Theberge's car was treated at the scene for minor injuries.

Kelly did not sustain any injuries, he said.

"(Kelly's) three female passengers, one adult and two children, were all examined at the scene and the adult was treated for minor injuries at the scene," he said. "All occupants from both vehicles were wearing seat belts and restrained in safety seats."

Fire and rescue crews that responded included Palermo, Weeks Mills, South China, Delta Ambulance and LifeFlight.