CHELSEA — A Chelsea teenager is back at home after he was hit by a car while riding his bicycle on Togus Road.

Brandon Folsom, 14, was at home Wednesday with his father, Frank Folsom, recovering from cuts, bruises and other injuries. He was eager to get back to school, said his mother, Marjorie Folsom.

“This morning he was in a lot of pain, but he’s talking about wanting to go back,” she said.

Marjorie Folsom was at work around 3 p.m. Friday when her other son, Blake Folsom, 16, called to tell her Brandon had been hit by a car. Marjorie said it was one of the worst calls she’s ever received.

She went to the scene and her son was in the back of the ambulance.

Classes were not in session that day because of a teachers’ workshops, but Brandon and a friend had ridden their bikes to Chelsea Elementary School to play on the playground. The school is visible from the Folsom’s Brook Lake home driveway.

“He’s traveled that road so many times,” Marjorie Folsom said.

Brandon and his friend were walking their bicycles with traffic on their way back to Brandon’s house when the accident occurred.

“He remembers seeing her coming really fast,” Marjorie Folsom said of the car. “She hit him and then he blacked out. He woke up and he was down in the ditch covered in blood.”

The impact threw Brandon from his bicycle and over a guardrail. His bicycle crashed into his friend, who was not injured, Marjorie Folsom said.

Brandon was taken to Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston, where he spent one night and was released the next day.

Brandon suffered a torn ligament in his left knee, had staples clipped to the top of his head to patch a bad cut and suffered a number of other cuts and bruises, Marjorie Folsom said. Brandon will need surgery to repair the ligament, his ACL.

A Maine State Police report of the accident, including the name of the driver, was unavailable on Wednesday.

The driver stopped the car and got out, Marjorie Folsom said. She has not heard what caused the driver to hit Brandon.

“How can you not see kids by the side of the road?” she said.

The speed limit on the road is 40 miles per hour, but the area where Brandon got hit is in a school zone where the limit is reduced to 15 miles per hour in the morning and afternoon.

“We have seen so many cars come through there and not even care or slow down, even when the lights are flashing,” Marjorie Folsom said. “People need to slow down.”

Brandon and his brother, Blake, have been known on occasion to give each other a hard time, but Blake has been Brandon’s attentive companion since the accident.

“He’s still upset,” Marjorie Folsom said of Blake. “At least I know they love each other.”

Even when Brandon is completely healed, his days of riding a bicycle on Togus Road are over, his mother said.

“Thank God he is still with us,” she said. “It could have been so much worse.”

Craig Crosby — 621-5642

ccrosby@centralmaine.com