CANAAN — A Canaan man was charged with operating under the influence Tuesday night after his pickup truck collided with a vehicle on U.S. Route 2 in Canaan, officials said.
August Darge, 60, was arrested after the incident and taken to the Somerset County Jail in Madison, where he was administered a blood alcohol test that showed he was three times the legal limit, according to Somerset County Sheriff Dale Lancaster.
Darge was previously arrested for operating under the influence in 2019, according to Lancaster.
Lancaster said that at about 6 p.m. Tuesday, his department received a call that a man who appeared to be intoxicated was slumped over the steering wheel of a GMC Sierra pickup truck at the Circle K on U.S. Route 2 in Canaan.
The caller was Logan Polis, a Jay resident who told the Morning Sentinel on Thursday that she was at the Circle K with her two children when another customer came into the store to report Darge was hunched over inside his pickup.
She said she went outside to confront him, but found Darge slurring and stuttering his words from behind the wheel. Polis dialed 911 to report him, at which point Darge began to pull out from the gas station, traveling about 2 mph, Lancaster said.
Polis then got into her car and began a low-speed chase after Darge.
“When he pulled out onto Route 2 from Circle K, he was not going very fast,” Polis said. “I had to wail on my horn for a good minute and a half before he even realized I was there.”
After following Darge through town on Route 2, Polis said she again confronted him and told him to pull over. Darge then swerved his pickup truck into the passenger side of Polis’ car, in which her children, ages 10 and 2, were sitting.
“I pulled up beside him, and there was plenty of room between us originally,” Polis said. “I said: ‘Hey guy, you really need to pull over. You’re gonna kill somebody.’ He just stared me dead in the face and proceeded to turn his vehicle into mine.”
Darge sideswiped Polis’ vehicle in front of the Canaan Fire Department on U.S. Route 2, according to Lancaster, who said the damage to Polis’ vehicle was not extensive.
“He definitely hit and ran. He wasn’t stopping,” Polis said. “He was blank staring at me the entire time he drove into the side of my car. My son is petrified to get back in the vehicle, and I don’t really blame him.”
Somerset Sheriff’s Deputy Jeffrey Brann arrested Darge at the scene, and he was then taken to the jail.
Darge is scheduled to appear July 3 at Somerset Unified Criminal Court in Skowhegan.
Staff writer Dylan Tusinski contributed to this report.
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