FAIRFIELD — A Waterville woman underwent surgery Wednesday for injuries she received when the Volkswagen Beetle she was driving collided with a loaded tractor trailer pulp truck on U.S. Route 201.
Anna Clark, 18, was driving south in a 2000 Volkswagen Beetle just before 8 a.m. when it collided with a 2008 pulp truck driven north by Gregory Stratton, 56, of Steuben, according to Fairfield police Officer Karen O’Donnell and police dispatcher Jeanne Kempers.
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O’Donnell said that according to information from the truck driver and an accident reconstructionist, it appears the Volkswagen drove over the center line and the truck couldn’t avoid it, but the collision wasn’t head-on. O’Donnell said the Volkswagen hit the read axles of the truck’s trailer.
Clark was still in the operating room at MaineGeneral Medical Center’s Thayer Campus in Waterville just after 3 p.m., a hospital spokesman said.
O’Donnell said Clark was conscious at the scene.
“She had broken bones,” she said. “Her father told me she had surgery — she needed surgery for internal injuries before they were treating the orthopedic injuries.”
Emergency workers used extrication equipment to remove Clark from the Volkswagen, which was destroyed, according to O’Donnell.
“She was a very, very, very, very fortunate young lady,” she said.
Police are not sure why the Volkswagen veered over the center line.
“There’s no indication that she was texting,” O’Donnell said.
Stratton was not injured in the crash, which happened just south of the Green Road intersection in the Hinckley area of Fairfield.
The trailer’s rear axle, tires and other parts were damaged.
Fairfield firefighters were called to the scene, as were State Police commercial vehicle officials. A Somerset County sheriff’s department official worked on the accident reconstruction, according to O’Donnell.
She said debris from the crash was scattered over two lanes of road, as well as the break-down lane. Police closed U.S. 201 for more than four hours following the crash.
Amy Calder — 861-9247
acalder@centralmaine.com
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