York Town News
"Horrific" weekend crash sends passenger, car off I-95 bridge
By Jennifer L. Saunders
Traffic backs up along Interstate 95 after a crash sent one car and one passenger from a second car over the York River bridge to the bank of the river below.
Photo courtesy of the York Fire Department
A crane is used to hoist a BMW convertible from the edge of the York River following a two-car crash on Interstate 95 on Sunday, Aug. 27.
Photo courtesy of York Fire Department
York police and the York Fire Department were joined by emergency personnel from two states as they responded to a dramatic collision on Interstate 95's York River bridge this past Sunday, Aug. 27. A passenger in one of the vehicles was ejected from the car, landing on the river's mudflats below the highway. The second car crashed through the guardrail, landing on top of him. Maine Warden Service and Department of Environmental Protection also responded to the scene, due to the impact of the crash on the river and its marshland. An investigation by the Maine State Police and York Police Department is ongoing.
Photo courtesy of York Fire Department
The crash occurred during what is normally a busy time on the southbound lanes of the interstate, York Fire Chief Chris Balentine confirmed, as weekend visitors made their way home from Maine.
The accident, however, was not because of high traffic volume but due to what authorities believe was a case of "drag-racing" between two strangers.
Balentine explained that a BMW and a Ford Mustang were heading north in the vicinity of the York River bridge Sunday morning.
According to witness accounts, he said, "They went under the Beech Ridge overpass, and when they came north of there, they started drag racing. The two vehicles came in contact with each other and went out of control. They bumped, and may have locked together sideways."
That is when the scene turned to what witnesses have described as something out of a stunt movie - minus the safety controls, Balentine explained.
"A male passenger in the rear of the Ford Mustang was ejected through the rear window, we believe. He went down over the guardrail and landed on the shore of the York River," Balentine recounted. "The BMW went over the guardrail and landed on him."
The man has since been identified by police as Brett Halliday, a Maine resident. He was transported first to Portsmouth Regional Hospital in New Hampshire, where he was listed in critical condition following the accident.
"It was a pretty horrific thing," Balentine said. "He was thrown 30-plus feet. Why he wasn't killed was a miracle."
A Portsmouth Regional Hospital official confirmed Halliday had been transferred to Maine Medical Center on Monday.
A Maine Medical Center spokeswoman said Tuesday that Halliday was listed in satisfactory condition.
Among the many people in cars that stopped when the accident occurred were two off-duty firefighters from Massachusetts, Balentine said, who rushed down the embankment to lift the car from the critically injured man.
Those Good Samaritans, and the tides affecting the York River, were in the man's favor, Balentine said.
"Had the tide been in, the passenger and the car would have gone into the water without a question," he said.
The driver of the Mustang, Rebecca Knox, 25, of South Portland, was taken to Portsmouth Regional Hospital. A second passenger from that vehicle was taken to York Hospital. Michael Dempsey, 29, of New Hampshire, was the driver of the BMW, according to Associated Press reports.
Balentine said Dempsey refused treatment for minor injuries at the scene.
Maine State Police troopers and Owen Davis, an accident reconstruction specialist with the York Police Department, are working on the investigation of the crash. Although no charges had been filed immediately following the accident, law enforcement officials have said charges are expected.
In addition to state and local police and the York Fire Department, Balentine said emergency personnel from the Portsmouth and Kittery Fire Departments as well as AMR, York Ambulance and the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard responded to the scene.
"We needed everybody we had for EMS and fire," Balentine said.
Because of the car's impact to the mudflats and marshland of the river, the Maine Warden Service and Maine Department of Environmental Protection were also involved.
While there was a small gasoline and oil spill in the river from the car, Balentine said it was essentially brought under control before DEP arrived.
Due in large part to the heavy volume of weekend traffic common to the area at this time of year, "Southbound traffic was just gridlocked by the time this happened, and we had quite a time accessing the scene because of it," Balentine said. "It affected northbound traffic because the reconstruction that took place meant we had to shut traffic off northbound for short periods of time."
He added that once necessary measurements were taken, National Wrecker Service responded to the scene with a crane to remove the BMW from the York River.
