Driver told officer he was reaching for cellphone...

Mon, 10/24/2016 - 3:30pm

Holly S. Edwards

It did not take long for the fire inside the engine compartment of Kevin Curit’s 2014 Dodge Dart to burn in earnest Monday afternoon, after he went off the road, became airborne, shattered a utility pole, possibly rolled in midair, and came to rest facing the wrong way from where he came. (Photo by Holly S. Edwards)

The yellow arrow shows where the car went off the road into the ditch and then up an embankment, which went it airborne into the utility pole, shattering it and leaving it hanging overhead. (Photo by Holly S. Edwards)

(Photo by Holly S. Edwards)

Camden Police Officer Brook Hartshorn and the driver, Kevin Curit, 41, of Lincolnville, walk to a North East Mobile Health ambulance with a pair of emergency medical technicians. (Photo by Holly S. Edwards)

Early at the scene of the accident, before firefighters had arrived to put out the growing car fire blaze. (Photo by Holly S. Edwards)

The car to the left of the photo drove under the first pair of near-invisible downed wires, before realizing there was an accident and stopping before she reached the second set and exiting her car. (Photo by Holly S. Edwards)

(Photo by Holly S. Edwards)

Early at the scene of the accident, before firefighters had arrived to put out the growing car fire blaze. (Photo by Holly S. Edwards)

(Photo by Holly S. Edwards)

CAMDEN — A Lincolnville man crashed his car on Simonton Road in Camden Monday around 2:10 p.m., a crash that occurred, he said, when he went to reach for his cellphone.

Kevin Curit, 41, was taken to Pen Bay Medical Center with no obvious injuries. But Camden Police Offficer Brook Hartshorn said she smelled alcohol on Curit's breath, and that he would be tested for such at the hospital.

Regardless of what caused the accident, Curit is a lucky man because according to Hartshorn, when his car left the road, it went into the ditch and came up an embankment, which sent it airborne where rolled at least once before landing back on its wheels. Near the beginning of its trajectory, the car shattered a utility pole, the top half of which was left dangling above the road and connected only by the lines attached to it at the top.

Moments after the car came to rest, flames could be seen coming from beneath the 2014 Dodge Dart, which was straddling the ditch that runs along the residences near box 50.

Curit was out of the car when Hartshorn arrived on scene.

Curit had been traveling west on Simonton Road, headed from Camden toward Rockport, and Simonton Corner.

Hampering the arrival of Camden Fire Department were the power lines across the road, attached to the utility pole as well as two homes across the street. Those power lines separated the car, whose engine compartment was soon beginning to burn rapidly, from Camden Fire Department's access to it from their side of town.

While Camden was en route via Barnestown Road and Main Street, in Rockport, mutual aid was called to Rockport Fire Department, which was directed to also come in from their end of Simonton Road/Park Street.

Hartshorn said the investigation was continuing.

Simonton Road remained closed as of 3:30 p.m., while Central Maine Power repaired the pole and worked to restore power to the area.

An accident further down Park Street in Rockport around 5:40 a.m. on Sunday, Oct. 23, knocked out power to residents in the same area for about six hours.

Reach Editorial Director Holly S. Edwards at hollyedwards@penbaypilot.com and 207-706-6655.