A 36-year-old Wiscasset man died by suicide when he intentionally crashed into a tree on Birch Point Road Wednesday morning, according to police.
The crash happened around 9:50 a.m. The man was driving a 2004 Chevrolet box truck when he accelerated to about 60 mph and drove into the tree, a witness told police. He appeared to have died on impact, police said.
About an hour before the crash, the man’s friends called police and said he was driving around in the truck and they were concerned he was going to hurt himself. Law enforcement from Lincoln and Sagadahoc counties searched for the vehicle but could not locate it, police said.
A witness reported the crash and Wiscasset police and a Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office deputy arrived at the scene “within seconds,” police said. The man was pinned in the wreckage and a small fire broke out under the vehicle; police and passersby tried to extinguish it to no avail.
A nearby home was evacuated as the Wiscasset Fire Department arrived and extinguished the fire.
Birch Point Road was closed to traffic for about three hours as crews cleared the scene.
The man’s body was taken to the state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Augusta for an autopsy.
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