WASHINGTON — A tractor trailer truck may have come to a stop completely off the road before emergency crews arrived shortly after an approximate 7:10 a.m. dispatch from 911, but it would be hours before traffic flows again through a portion of Augusta Road, Route 17, in Washington.

The truck driver, Alec Reynolds, 72, of Unity, has been transported to Pen Bay Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries after the truck left the eastbound pavement, near the Fitch Road, pushing over the fogline, through a guardrail, and plummeting the entire rig into Davis Stream.

Three other people who didn’t witness the crash but stopped to help will be commended by the Knox County Sheriff’s Office for their efforts. The three, all from out of state, saw the truck in the brook, vacated their vehicles and jumped the guardrail to stay with the driver, who was still in the rig. Though the driver was alert and responsive when the Good Samaritans arrived, he was bleeding, and at least one Samaritan was left with blood on his own shirt.

State Police, Knox County Sheriff’s Office and MDOT cautiously treaded the black ice of Route 17 as they worked to determine the circumstances. However, the KCSO also cited icy roads as a factor in their preliminary investigation.

Big rig wreckers arrived at the scene at approximately 9 a.m., and sat idle while CMP crews relocated unaffected power lines that created obstacles to the industrial rotating booms that would eventually lift and rotate the rig back onto solid ground. While the linesmen worked, the strategizing continued as to exactly how everything was going to happen.

Washington firefighters in the intensifying rain blocked traffic from entering the scene until MDOT arrived with Road Closure barricades. Union Ambulance transported the driver.

Reach Sarah Thompson at news@penbaypilot.com

WASHINGTON — Fire, rescue and state troopers are on scene by the intersection of Vanner Road and Route 17 where a tractor trailer veered off the highway before crashing.

The driver has been transported to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Morning traffic has been diverted along the Fitch Road.

More details will be provided when they become available.