A Harpswell man was stuck in his car with serious injuries for 10 hours Wednesday morning after he lost control of the vehicle and it went airborne and slammed into an unoccupied house, according to police.
Kevin O’Connor, 35, of Harpswell, was driving a 1995 Oldsmobile Cutlass on Harpswell Islands Road when he crashed near midnight Tuesday.
His car left the road and was airborne when it slammed into the roof of the house and came to rest against an exterior wall, according to the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office. The house sits partway down a slope that descends from the road to Mackerel Cove.
O’Connor was the only occupant of the car. He suffered multiple broken limbs and a head injury, according to police.
Because no one was inside the house, the accident went unreported. O’Connor had a cellphone, but the battery was dead.
A passer-by discovered the accident at 10 a.m. Wednesday and called police.
O’Connor was extricated from the vehicle by the Orr’s & Bailey Islands Fire Department. He was taken to Maine Medical Center in Portland with serious but non-life-threatening injuries.
Maine Med spokesman Matt Wickenheiser said he was unable to provide O’Connor’s condition Wednesday night.
Speed was a factor in the crash, which remains under investigation by the sheriff’s office.
The house that was damaged by the car is a bit of a local landmark. A plaque marks it as the former home of Maine fisherman Elroy Johnson, who was nicknamed “Snoody” and was the inspiration for a statue of a lobsterman that was created and displayed at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. After Johnson died in 1973, the Maine Legislature paid for three bronze copies of the plaster original. Those statues can still be viewed in downtown Portland, on Bailey’s Island in Harpswell and in Washington, D.C.
Property records show the house is now owned by an LLC in Arizona.
Megan Doyle can be contacted at 791-6327 or at:
mdoyle@pressherald.com
Twitter: megan_e_doyle
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