Cline urges motorists: Slow down on snow-covered roads

Two injured in first of two post-storm crashes on Jan. 28
Wed, 01/28/2015 - 2:00pm

    One of two midday accidents in Wiscasset on Jan. 28 injured a Wiscasset man and a Nobleboro woman, Wiscasset Police Chief Troy Cline said. That accident on Route 1 near Flood Avenue at about 11:15 a.m., and another around noon could have been avoided, had drivers involved used caution with road conditions following a Jan. 27 snowstorm, Cline said.

    “Slow down,” the chief said at the scene of the second accident, at the Lowelltown Road-Willow Lane intersection. “This is the second accident within an hour, and it’s been due to people driving too fast for the conditions. Just because the storm stopped doesn’t mean you don’t have to slow down. The roads are still snow-covered.

    “Both of these accidents were preventable if people had just been driving for the conditions and not hurrying along,” Cline continued.

    The Route 1 accident involved two vehicles. Aimee Ethier-Bixby, 50, of Nobleboro, who received serious injuries, was driving a 1995 Oldsmobile south on Route 1 near Holbrook Pond when she lost control of the vehicle and it started skidding, according to Cline’s press release later in the day. The vehicle crossed the center line and struck a 2000 Nissan head-on, the release states.

    Eleazer Disla Cuevas, 23, of Wiscasset was driving the Nissan, the release states. The Nissan came to rest in a ditch on the northbound side of the road; the Oldsmobile, in the northbound lane.

    The Wiscasset Fire Department freed Ethier-Bixby from the vehicle she was in; Wiscasset Ambulance Service treated her and Cuevas at the scene. Ethier-Bixby went to Central Maine Medical Center (CMMC) in Lewiston on a LifeFlight helicopter that met Wiscasset Ambulance Service at Wiscasset Municipal Airport; she was released from the hospital, a CMMC spokeswoman said Jan. 29.

    Cuevas was treated and released from Miles Memorial Hospital in Damariscotta, a spokesman there said.

    No one was hurt in the second crash, which also involved two vehicles, Cline said. Chris Calivas, 63, was driving a red 2002 Chevy Ventura minivan northwesterly on Willow Lane. “He was driving too fast for the conditions. He didn’t see the stop sign, hit the breaks (and) slid through the intersection.” The minivan collided with a silver 1999 Honda Civic being driven northerly on Lowelltown Road by Cassandra Panarese, 20, Cline said. “As she goes through the intersection, the minivan hits her (vehicle) broadside, causing her (vehicle) to spin around and go into the snowbank.”

    The minivan also struck and caused minor damage to a utility pole at the intersection, Cline said. Central Maine Power responded to the scene, but there was no loss of power due to the accident, Cline said.