A Portland woman was charged with operating under the influence after driving the wrong way on Interstate 295, almost hitting a state trooper’s cruiser along the way, according to Maine State Police.
At about 11:22 p.m. on Monday, the Augusta Regional Communications Center started getting calls about a wrong-way driver in the southbound lane of Interstate 295 in Falmouth.
A state police trooper who was driving southbound on the turnpike about a mile away saw the approaching headlights and pulled into the breakdown lane to avoid being hit.
The trooper then turned around and chased the vehicle, a 2018 silver Nissan Rogue, as it continued to drive north in the southbound passing lane. When the driver did not pull over, the trooper used a precision immobilization technique — driving ahead then stopping perpendicular to the oncoming vehicle — and forced the car into the median of the divided highway.
The driver, Ellen Honan, 67, of Portland, was charged with operating under the influence, failure to stop for a police officer, and operating the wrong way on a divided highway.
The incident comes less than a week after three people were killed in a wrong-way crash on the Maine Turnpike in Portland.
