AUGUSTA — A city woman was seriously injured Friday when she was hit by a sport-utility vehicle while walking on a sidewalk on North Belfast Avenue.
Ruth Epperson, 81, was taken by a LifeFlight helicopter to Maine Medical Center in Portland with life-threatening injuries, said Augusta Police Sgt. Christopher Shaw.
The driver of the car that hit Epperson, Joshua Erskine, 24, of Windsor, was not injured.
The crash happened about 3:30 p.m. as Erskine was driving his 1999 Jeep Cherokee east on North Belfast Avenue. Erskine lost control of his vehicle roughly 4/10 of a mile east of the Bangor Street intersection.
The Jeep swerved across the west-bound lane and hit a parked car belonging to 59 year-old Kathleen Greene. The car was parked in the driveway to Greene’s home, Shaw said.
Erskine’s Jeep then caromed off Greene’s car and plowed into Epperson, who was walking on the sidewalk.
Erskine’s blood will be tested to determine if he was intoxicated at the time of the crash, which is standard procedure when serious injury is involved, Shaw said. Erskine had not been charged criminally as of Friday evening, Shaw said.
Police remained on the scene for more than two hours reconstructing the crash. Part of that investigation is determining what might have caused Erskine to lose control of the Jeep, Shaw said.
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