Pedestrian in critical condition after being struck on Cony Road in Augusta

AUGUSTA — A man struck by a vehicle while walking on Cony Road was listed in critical condition Tuesday at a Portland hospital.

Audi Veras, 42, who is from Florida but has been staying in Augusta, was struck while walking on Cony Road in Augusta around 6:45 a.m. Saturday, receiving what Augusta police described as serious injuries.

The incident took place a short distance south of the site where three pedestrians, including a 1-year-old girl and her grandmother, were struck and killed in 2021 while walking alongside of Cony Road.

There is no sidewalk on that part of Cony Road.

Veras was walking in the road when he was struck by a 2014 Honda driven by Phillip Gallant, 40, of Chelsea, according to Kevin Lully, interim police chief in Augusta. Gallant was not injured.

Lully said Veras was taken by Augusta Rescue to MaineGeneral hospital in Augusta. He was later transferred to Maine Medical Center in Portland. A Maine Medical Center spokesperson on Tuesday said Veras was in critical condition.

Veras was hit near 333 Cony Road, location of a state Department of Agriculture facility, just south of Piggery Road.

Lully said no charges have been filed in the crash.

The city plans to install a sidewalk on Cony Road, from the end of an existing sidewalk that goes from Eastern Avenue to New England Road, from New England Road to the entrance to Maine Arts Academy, just beyond the Piggery Road intersection. Piggery Road is the site of numerous Capital Area Recreation Association youth ballfields.

The planned new sidewalk would not extend to Saturday’s crash site at 333 Cony Road, ending just north of that site.

City Engineer Tyler Pease said he had hoped the city could have built the new sidewalk section last year, but the project was delayed, in part due to his workload and schedule.

Pease said the sidewalk project, estimated to cost around $270,000, will likely go out to bid this spring and be built later in 2024.

Residents approved funding for the sidewalk in a 2022 referendum.

A memorial bench in tribute to the three pedestrians killed on Cony Road in 2021, Rosalyn Jean, 62, Barbara Maxim-Hendsbee, 69, and Vada-Leigh Peaslee, Maxim-Hendsbee’s 1-year-old granddaughter, paid for by the driver who struck them as part of an agreement he made with state prosecutors, has already been installed alongside Cony Road, between New England and Piggery roads.