PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — The Presque Isle Police Department responded to a single vehicle crash on Friday afternoon that resulted in non-life-threatening injuries for the driver.
Seventy-nine-year-old Peter Louridas, of Ashland, was driving his 2006 Ford Model 500 on Mapleton Road in Presque Isle at around 1:15 p.m. when he became distracted, which caused him to drive off the road into the shoulder for about ¼ of a mile. His vehicle then side-swiped a guardrail and rolled over into Hanson Lake.
Louridas later admitted that he had looked down for a few seconds, but was unable to gain control of his vehicle after looking up again, according to Sergeant Joey Seeley. Louridas was transported to The Aroostook Medical Center with non-life-threatening injuries and his vehicle was a total loss.
Seeley noted that wearing a seatbelt likely saved Louridas’s life.
“Things definitely would have been a lot worse had he not been wearing that seatbelt,” Seeley said.
The crash also caused fluid from Louridas’s car to drain into Hanson Lake, Seeley said, but the issue was taken care of by officials from the Department of Environmental Protection.
