A local Maine State Police trooper is back home recovering after a crash last Friday that landed the officer and a Naples woman in the hospital.

At 9:30 a.m. Friday morning, Maureen Simmons, 35, of Naples, was attempting to turn left into Naples Family Practice on Route 302 when a police cruiser – driven by Trooper Michael Smith, 33, of Casco – crashed nearly head-on into her Ford Expedition.

While state police, who are currently investigating the collision, contend that Simmons is at fault for the accident, Simmons says the trooper was driving too fast and that state police have falsely assumed she is to blame.

“If he had been traveling at a normal rate of speed, I would have had plenty of time to turn into that driveway,” Simmons said.

Simmons was heading to a doctor’s appointment at Naples Family Practice when the accident occurred. She said she remembers seeing the cruiser far off at the top of a small incline and thought she had “plenty of time” to make the turn. The next thing she knew the cruiser had collided with her vehicle.

In the aftermath, Simmons fought to put the car in park as smoke plumed into the cab of her car. She then opened the door and fell into the street where a bystander helped her out of the road.

Rescue workers used the “jaws of life” to open the cab of Smith’s cruiser and remove the trooper, who suffered multiple injuries. Smith was airlifted by helicopter to Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston where he remained in recovery until Wednesday. Simmons was taken to Bridgton Hospital where she was treated and released.

At the scene of the crash, Simmons said state police were already blaming her for the accident.

“I think that the accident has been sensationalized (by the media) because he is a state trooper. I think I’m fighting a losing battle,” Simmons said. ” I just don’t want to be the villain.”

At the time of the crash, Smith, a K9 expert who joined the Maine State Police in 1998, had been traveling on routine patrol eastbound on Route 302 with his police dog, Jetta. Jetta suffered “minor bumps and bruises” from the crash and was treated by a local veterinarian.

Maine Public Safety Spokesman Steve McCausland said the “main cause” of the accident was Simmon’s decision to pull out in front of Smith’s cruiser.

“It’s clear that she failed to yield,” McCausland said. “He was in his lane. She was not in her’s.”

Self-policing?

While local police departments employ other agencies like the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Department to investigate major crashes involving their officers, state police investigate their own crashes as a matter of policy.

McCausland said there is no conflict of interest in having state troopers investigate the disputed crash.

Still recovering, Simmons, a stay-at-home mother with three young boys, is back at home with her husband, Jason.

“I’m on the mend and hobbling around like an 80-year-old woman, but I’m very worried about the trooper,” she said. “I hope he can be happy and healthy and be back on the job soon.”

Smith, now home in Casco recovering, declined to comment.

It will take awhile for Smith to recover from the crash, says McCausland.

“We fully expect he’ll make a full recovery, but he’s still pretty banged up,” he said.

Maine State Police Trooper Michael Smith is back home after suffering serious injuries in a collision in Naples last week. State police are currently investigating the accident, but are being criticized by a woman involved in the accident for prejudging which driver was at fault.

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