The son of a Windham woman who died in a Westbrook car accident Sunday has been treated and released from Maine Medical Center.
According to Westbrook police, Marilyn Lawrence, 53, of 33 Vance Drive, was killed when her 1995 Dodge Spirit crashed on Methodist Road at about 10:05 a.m.
Lawrence’s son, Darrell Parson, 30, also of Windham, was a passenger in the car at the time of the crash. He was taken to Maine Medical Center after the accident.
According to police, Lawrence’s vehicle spun out of control headed southbound, hit a roadside ditch and then rolled over onto its roof. Lawrence was taken to Maine Medical Center, where she died from injuries.
Witnesses said the crash happened Sunday morning after Methodist Road had become icy.
“The road had turned to clear ice,” said Kenneth Davis, of 622 Methodist Road. The accident, which occurred in front of Davis’ home, happened while Davis was reading in his living room.
About 15 or 20 minutes before the crash, Davis and other family members had been walking on the road transporting a piece of exercise equipment from a nearby residence. At that time, he said, the road showed no signs of being slick. But when Davis looked out his window after the crash, he noticed the road had become extremely icy.
While Davis didn’t see the accident, he heard it. Davis described the noise of the collision as a sort of “crushing” sound.
Immediately after the collision, Davis called E-911. As he was on the phone with authorities, Davis’ stepson and grandson, both clad in pants and T-shirts, rushed out to see if anyone had survived the accident and whether they could be of help.
According to Davis’ stepson, Brandon Lund, Lawrence’s son was in the back seat of the upside-down car in the process of kicking out the rear door on the passenger side as the two men approached. With pry bar in hand, Lund then helped open the driver’s side rear door so Parson could attend to his mother, who was held upside-down by her seatbelt in the driver’s seat.
“The car had flipped over. The driver’s side door was stuck. He went in the back because he wanted to talk to her,” Lund said.
Lund said Lawrence was alert and able to move immediately after the accident. But, he said, the woman had stopped talking and moving just before rescue vehicles appeared on scene.
The icy road condition, Westbrook accident reconstructionist officer James Farrenkopf said, was the cause of the fatal accident. The weather was intermittent snow showers on Sunday at around 10 a.m. The weather was blamed for about 15 other accidents in Westbrook, none of them fatal.
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