The 37-year-old woman who sustained severe injuries Tuesday in a crash with a logging truck near Jackman had fallen asleep at the wheel after working a night shift, police said.
Naomi Trepanier of Moose River was taken by a LifeFlight of Maine helicopter to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor for treatment of injuries considered severe but not life-threatening, Somerset County Sheriff Dale Lancaster said in a statement Wednesday afternoon.
Around 7:45 a.m. Tuesday, Trepanier was driving a Chevrolet Equinox west on Long Pond Road in Jackman when she crossed the center line into an oncoming logging truck, Lancaster said. Long Pond Road is numbered as routes 6 and 15.
Trepanier’s car hit the left rear axle of the trailer, which was empty, Lancaster said. The car then slid off the road and into a ditch, about 25 feet from railroad tracks.
Deputy Neil McMillin’s investigation found that Trepanier was driving home after completing a night shift at the Northern Light hospital in Greenville.
The driver of the logging truck — Kevin Hebert, 37, of Madison — took “evasive action” but was not able to avoid Trepanier’s car, Lancaster said. Hebert was not injured in the crash.
First responders extricated Trepanier from the car, which was a lengthy process, according to Chief Bill Jarvis of the Jackman-Moose River Fire and Rescue Department. A LifeFlight helicopter arrived as Trepanier was extricated, Jarvis said.
Trepanier’s car was destroyed in the crash, Lancaster said.
The road was closed in both directions for more than three hours as police investigated and cleared the scene, Lancaster said. It was fully reopened around 12:30 p.m.
Somerset County sheriff’s deputies and Jackman firefighters and paramedics responded to the scene of the crash. The Maine State Police’s Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Unit, the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, and U.S. Border Patrol also assisted, according to Lancaster. State police conducted the crash reconstruction and mapping.
Jarvis said Tuesday morning that the crash had occurred in Long Pond Township, an unorganized territory bordering Jackman to the east.
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