Mother and daughter killed as dual crashes halt traffic along Route 302

Police work at the scene of Tuesday’s fatal crash on Route 302 in Casco. (Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office photo)

A deadly head-on collision and a separate accident involving a logging truck forced police to close two sections of Route 302 for most of Tuesday evening.

Two people were killed and a third person was critically injured in the two-vehicle head-on crash on Route 302 in Casco late Tuesday afternoon.

That accident was followed by an unrelated collision between a logging truck and two motor vehicles on Route 302 in Windham.

Capt. Scott Stewart of the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office identified the victims of the Casco crash as Bridgton residents Jamie Mantz, 53, and her mother, Carol Storm, 80. The driver of the second vehicle, Austin Wood, 26, of Naples, was transported to Maine Medical Center in Portland with serious head and leg injuries. Wood was listed in critical condition Tuesday night.

“Initial investigation showed that for unknown reasons, Mantz crossed the centerline and struck Wood head-on,” Stewart said in a statement.

Mantz was operating a 2003 Jeep Liberty and Wood was driving a 2003 Chevy Tahoe.

Emergency crews had to extricate all of the people involved in the crash, which was reported at 3:59 p.m. Route 302, one of the Lakes Region’s busiest highways, was shut down to traffic in Casco until 8:30 p.m. The crash took place near Route 302’s intersection with Cold Springs Road.

In the second crash Tuesday night, a logging truck and two cars collided on Route 302 in the area of Lakehurst Drive in Windham. That section of Route 302 was closed around 6:30 p.m. and did not reopen until 9 p.m.

An emergency dispatcher said the truck was carrying a load of logs, which spilled onto the road, forcing police to shut down Route 302 between White’s Bridge Road in Windham and Webb’s Mill Road (Route 85) in Raymond.

News Center Maine (WCSH/WBLZ) reported that one of the drivers in the Windham crash, 40-year-old Rachel Lorraine of Raymond, left the accident scene on foot. Police officers located her and she was transported to Maine Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries.

The drivers of the logging truck and a third vehicle did not require medical treatment, News Center Maine reported.

Dennis Hoey can be contacted at 791-6365 or at:

dhoey@pressherald.com