SIDNEY — One passenger was seriously injured when a distracted driver swerved into oncoming traffic and collided head-on with another vehicle Monday afternoon on West River Road, according to a statement from a state police trooper.
Billy Nutter, 28, of Winslow, was traveling north in Sidney in a 2015 Ford Focus and looked down at her cellphone because she was receiving a call, according to Trooper Jacob Roddy of Troop C. Nutter told Roddy and another trooper that when she looked up, she was in the southbound lane facing oncoming traffic and it was too late for her to react. Nutter’s vehicle then collided with a 2001 GMC pickup truck.
Amie LeClair, 35, of Sidney, who was driving the pickup, told police that once she realized Nutter’s vehicle was heading toward her own, she slammed on her brakes, sounded the horn and turned her wheel in a failed attempt to avoid a crash.
LeClair and Nutter both were able to escape from their damaged vehicles, but LeClair’s passenger, Chase Bickford, 33, of Winslow, was pinned inside the truck cab with a serious leg injury.
Roddy and Trooper Sam Tlumac, along with emergency personnel, went to the scene about 3:40 p.m. A crew from Sidney Fire and Rescue was able to extract Bickford from the truck, and he was taken by LifeFlight helicopter to Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston with what appeared to be a broken femur.
LeClair and Nutter suffered minor injuries in the crash. LeClair was treated at the scene and Nutter was taken to MaineGeneral Medical Center in Augusta by Delta Ambulance.
No criminal charges relating to the crash had been filed as of late Monday night, but according to Roddy’s statement, court action is pending.
Emily Higginbotham — 861-9239
ehigginbotham@centralmaine.com
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