An Ellsworth police police officer crashed his cruiser into an SUV on Bucksport Road on Sunday, causing the other vehicle to roll over several times and injuring its occupants, according to police.
Officer Zachary Taylor, 26, was driving the cruiser west on Route 1 in Ellsworth around 12:45 p.m. when he tried to make a U-turn at the Twin Hill Road intersection, according to the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department.
As Taylor turned from the breakdown lane, the cruiser struck the passenger side of a Toyota SUV that was passing it on the left, “causing it to roll over several times before coming to rest on its side in a ditch,” Deputy Kyle Kramer wrote in a synopsis of the crash.
The driver of the Toyota, a 50-year-old woman, and her passenger, 70, both of New Hampshire, suffered minor injuries in the crash and were taken by ambulance to Northern Light Maine Coast Hospital in Ellsworth.
Both the Toyota and the Ellsworth police cruise had to be towed from the collision site.
Additional information was not immediately available Monday afternoon.
