A pedestrian hit by a car on Main Street in Fairfield last week is in stable condition at a Bangor hospital, while police continue to investigate the accident.
Town officials are hoping the accident will spur the state to act on a request to change the speed limit on the stretch of road.
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There is no indication that alcohol or speed were factors in the Thursday night accident in which Christopher Griffiths, 47, of Fairfield, was taken by LifeFlight helicopter to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor for a head injury, said Fairfield Police Chief Tom Gould on Monday. He said police are continuing to investigate the accident and that Griffiths is in stable condition.
Griffiths was walking north on Main Street at around 5 p.m. Thursday when he was struck by a Subaru Outback being driven by Edward Mathieu, of Winslow.
Griffiths was walking in the road with his back to traffic and was headed in the same direction as the car, Gould said.
“We had several witnesses who said that they did not see him,” he said.
Fairfield officials petitioned the Maine Department of Transportation over the summer to look into lowering the speed limit on Main Street from the Waterville city line to Gerald Terrace, Gould said. The request remains under review.
The speed limit is currently 35 miles per hour, but changes to 25 miles per hour less than a half mile down the road.
“There have been speed concerns in that zone and we have brought them to the state’s attention,” he said. “We think it would be proper to change the speed limit because of the volume of vehicle and pedestrian traffic in the area.”
In 2004, a pedestrian was killed while walking across Main Street in the crosswalk near Huhtamaki Packaging, just a short distance from the Waterville town line.
Rachel Ohm — 612-2368
Twitter: @rachel_ohm
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