Police say that blinding sunlight may have been the cause of a 30-car chain-reaction pileup on Interstate 95 in Carmel Tuesday morning that left several injured and closed the northbound lanes of the highway for hours.
Maine State Police say the pileup occurred at around 7:45 a.m. Tuesday near mile marker 174, in Carmel, with the initial crash possibly caused by blinding sun. Quickly, other vehicles collided — about 30 in all. Ten more were involved in secondary crashes as traffic started to back up near the scene.
Maine State Police Lt. Roderick Charette says a number of responders were brought in to help.
“Multiple units from the state police, Penobscot County’s sheriff’s office, warden service, DOT, area ambulance and fire services, as well as almost every wrecker in the region, were involved in working to resolve this incident,” he says.
At a nearby Dysart’s travel stop off of exit 174, Sid Bizeau of Corinna points to a busted headlight and reservoir tank on his truck, which was damaged in the pileup. He says despite the blinding glare from the sun, he was able to come to a stop without crashing into the cars in front of him. But, he says, several cars behind him couldn’t stop in time. They hit his truck and pushed it into a van.
“It was like a chain reaction after that. People were just hitting people left and right, behind me. All I could see was vehicles stopped. But then I could just hear them hitting,” he says.
Five years ago, a pileup of more than 100 cars — believed to be the largest in Maine’s history — occurred on a nearby section of I-95. The cause of that crash was attributed to slick weather conditions and excess speed.
Maine State Police Sgt. Barry Meserve says, though he’s not sure why, the stretch of the highway from Etna to Carmel does seem to freeze first.
“Typically when we have crashes, and storms that come, that area seems to get the crashes first,” he says.
While the cause of Tuesday’s pileup is still under investigation, several officers and motorists say the blinding morning sun appeared to be a significant hazard. Police even shared an image from an officer’s dash cam showing the sun directly above the horizon.
Paul Merrill, a spokesperson for the Maine Department of Transportation, says his agency knows the stretch of highway near Carmel has had several high-profile crashes in recent years, but says their causes are all unrelated. And he says over the next few months, the state will be putting in new intelligent weather stations along highways, including one in nearby Etna, that will offer more up-to-date information on road conditions and alert drivers.
“There are things we can’t control. But even if we cannot control them, we can do our best to get out ahead of them or respond when something happens,” he says.
Officials at Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor say they received 11 patients who were injured in the pileup. Two other motorists were sent to other area hospitals. EMMC says the majority of its patients had minor injuries, but one did have more extensive trauma that did not require surgery.
