An Ellsworth police cruiser was totaled last week in a three-vehicle crash.
Officer Erick Skinner’s 2020 Ford Explorer cruiser was parked with its emergency lights flashing in the breakdown lane on Route 1, also known as Downeast Highway, behind a 2007 Hyundai last Thursday, according to the Ellsworth American.
The Hyundai, driven by 35-year-old Alicia Tenney of Franklin, had been involved in a crash, the newspaper reported.
While the crash was being cleared, a 2001 Mac truck driven by 54-year-old Frederick Rice of Franklin rear-ended Skinner’s cruiser, sending it crashing into the Hyundai, the Ellsworth American reported.
The cruiser was totaled.
No injuries were reported.
It was the second crash involving an Ellsworth police cruiser in about a month. On Sept. 24, Officer Zachary Chandler, 26, was driving the cruiser west on Route 1 in Ellsworth around 12:45 p.m. when he tried to make a U-turn near the Twin Hill Road and struck the passenger side of a Toyota SUV.
A subsequent investigation found Chandler had made an improper turn because he was too close to an intersection and didn’t have his emergency lights on.
That crash sent a 50-year-old woman and her passenger, 70, both of New Hampshire, to a local hospital with minor injuries.
