A former mayor of Iowa’s capital city had spent the day at Hollywood Casino in Bangor and was drunk when his SUV crossed two lanes of traffic and collided with an oncoming pickup truck on Aug. 5, police said Friday.
Richard Olson, 85, had just left the Lucerne Inn, where witnesses said he drank half a martini, and was driving on Route 1A in Dedham at 5:45 p.m. headed toward Ellsworth when he crashed head-on into the pickup so violently that it ripped the cab off the truck’s frame, police said.
The driver of the pickup, Phillip Carter, 32, his passenger Roxanne Papken, 25, both of Bangor, and Olson were killed instantly.
Olson’s SUV was going 76 mph in a 55 mph zone when it crossed the center line, the oncoming passing lane and then collided with Carter’s pickup near the fog line on the far side of the road, police said.
Olson was mayor of Des Moines, capital of Iowa, in the 1970s and was a summer resident of Ellsworth.
His blood-alcohol content was 0.14 at the time of the crash. It is illegal for a person in Maine to drive with a blood-alcohol content of 0.08 or higher. Police said they do not know where Olson drank enough alcohol to have a blood-alcohol content of 0.14
There is no indication cellphone use played a role in the crash, police said.
David Hench can be contacted at 791-6327 or at:
Twitter: @Mainehenchman
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