A Maine State Police trooper injured when his cruiser was hit by a tractor-trailer Thursday continues to recover at a Portland hospital.

Trooper Greg Stevens was listed in satisfactory condition Friday morning at Maine Medical Center, according to a hospital spokesman.

Stevens suffered multiple injuries, including broken ribs and neck and leg injuries, when a tractor-trailer slammed into his cruiser in the northbound lanes of Interstate 295 in Richmond. Stevens was in the breakdown lane, with the cruiser’s blue lights flashing, when he was hit from behind.

Gusan Yedic, 56, of Yorktown Heights, New York, was issued a summons charging him with failing to move over for an emergency vehicle.

Yedic was not injured in the crash.

State police Lt. Aaron Hayden said he could not comment on Stevens’ specific injuries, but said he suffered “multiple broken bones.” Hayden said there is no timetable for Stevens’ release from the hospital and that he probably will be out of work for an extended period as he continues to heal.

Advertisement

The tractor-trailer, which caught fire, and the cruiser, a 2015 Ford sport utility vehicle, were destroyed in the crash, which occurred around 9:45 a.m. Thursday near mile 46. Northbound traffic was slowed for most of the day Thursday as crews worked to clean up the crash site.

The move-over law, passed in 2007, requires drivers passing a parked emergency vehicle using emergency lights to move over into a non-adjacent lane farthest away from the emergency vehicle regardless of the weather. On the interstate, that means moving from the driving lane on the right to the passing lane on the left.

Hayden said in 2013 that in the previous three years, 24 cruisers had been hit from behind while their emergency lights were flashing. Those crashes left 12 troopers injured.


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.