Rob Prescott surveys the damage done to his Somerville home Tuesday. The home was struck by a pickup truck Saturday. Jessica Lowell/Kennebec Journal
SOMERVILLE — Rob Prescott could see the blue pickup truck barreling straight for his house early Saturday afternoon, and all he could do was hold on.
“Time just stood still,” Prescott said Tuesday, standing in front of the mobile home on Turner Ridge Road that he bought last summer. “Then it was over, just like that.”
Prescott and a friend were working on the home around 1 p.m. Saturday, with Prescott — no fan of heights — up on the roof, secured by a harness to an anchor point.
He said they’d just been talking about what a great day it was to be working outside when he heard the high-pitched whine of an engine. When he looked up, he saw a blue pickup flying through the air toward him.
He estimated truck was going about 60 miles per hour when it clipped the oak tree at the edge of his driveway, peeling away a large patch of bark and leaving behind a scrape of blue paint. The truck then struck the front of the house, damaging the front wall, destroying the front deck and knocking the mobile home 18 inches off its foundation.
“When I saw it, the truck was slowly rolling and the back end was up and (the tailgate) was higher than the roofline,” he said, estimating that the truck came within 5 feet of where he stood.
The place where the truck came to rest in the lawn is marked by a deep furrow.
Prescott said there are parts of the afternoon he doesn’t remember, like coming down off the roof. But he does remember seeing the driver get out of the crashed truck and run around the house twice, making his way inside the house then starting to run off down the road before he collapsed by the driveway. He said the path of the driver, later identified as Gage Gagnon, is marked by blood from the gash in his head.
The crash drew the Maine State Police and first responders from Somerville and other communities.
Gagnon, 23, of Belfast, was taken to MaineGeneral Health in Augusta, where hospital officials say he was treated and released.
No other injuries were reported.
Maine State Police Cpl. Jeremiah Wesbrock said the crash remains under investigation. Gagnon has initially been ticketed for operating after revocation, habitual offender and illegal attachment of plates. State police are waiting for a warrant to test Gagnon’s blood to see if he was under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
Prescott lived in Augusta for most of his life. He returned to Maine last summer after five years in Florida. He bought the home, knowing it would need work to bring it to a point where he could insure it. After the crash, some friends came over to jack up and level the home. Prescott estimates the damage will cost several thousand dollars to fix, not including the labor. Because he’s a carpenter, he said, he can do a lot of the work himself.
“I was just going to replace the all siding and the roofing and get rid of the trailer look, and make it look nicer,” Prescott said.
He still plans to do that and he expects all the work will be taken care of by winter. The siding is on order, and he’ll be rebuilding the front deck.
While Prescott has had a number of near-death experiences on the job, he said he hasn’t experienced anything like this before.
“This was the best case possible, really,” he said. “Usually, we’re just sitting inside hanging out, and it would have been really traumatic for the truck to come through like that.”
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