MEXICO — Police said two drivers were injured in separate accidents involving deer on highways this week.
On Monday night, Gerard Pelletier, 50, of Mexico was seriously injured when his car struck a dead deer on Route 2 in Mexico and swerved into a loaded logging truck, Maine Department of Public Safety spokesman Stephen McCausland said Tuesday afternoon. The loaded pulp truck driven by Bernard Roy, 31, of Passumpsic, Vt., overturned, spilling the logs on Pelletier’s car.
Mexico Fire Chief Gary Wentzell said Roy was driving east toward Dixfield and that Pelletier was headed west.
McCausland said that “just prior to the collision, (Pelletier’s) car had run over a dead deer in the roadway,” which caused him to lose control and swerve into the path of Roy’s truck.
The deer had been struck and killed by another vehicle moments before Pelletier ran over it, McCausland said.
Pelletier was taken to Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston with serious injuries, while Roy suffered minor injuries and was not hospitalized, officials said.
The accident happened near Coulthard’s Pools and Spas at 454 River Road. Wentzell said a section of Route 2 was closed to clean up the highway.
On Tuesday morning, Monica Jones, 41, of Amity was injured when she swerved her 2007 Dodge pickup truck to miss three deer on Route 1, according to Maine State Police Sgt. Jeffrey Clark’s report.
The truck went off the highway and struck trees. Jones was taken to Houlton Regional Hospital with injuries not considered life-threatening, the report said.
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