WISCASSET — One man was seriously injured Wednesday morning after his car collided with a mobile home being hauled by a tractor-trailer on Bath Road in Wiscasset.
Ryan Graffam, 25, of Friendship, sustained life-threatening injuries and was taken by LifeFlight to Maine Medical Center in Portland, according to the Wiscasset Police Department. His current status is unknown.
The crash prompted officials to close Route 1 for approximately six hours, police said.
In the lead-up to the incident, Ronald Cunliffe, 33, of Marble, Pennsylvania, had been traveling northbound on Bath Road, hauling a mobile home with his 1992 Peterbilt at around 5:20 a.m. when his flagging vehicle warned him about a Ford Mustang driving too close to the centerline.
Cunliffe noticed the driver, Graffam, crossing over into his lane and pulled his truck to the far right to avoid a head-on collision.
Police said Graffam missed the truck but collided with the left front corner of the mobile home, sending his vehicle partially under the structure. The car then struck the trailer’s rear axles, deflected away from the mobile home and came to rest against a set of guardrails.
Graffam was removed from his vehicle by Wiscasset firefighters. He was initially transported to Mid Coast Hospital in Brunswick before being flown to Maine Medical Center.
Wiscasset police, fire and EMS units were dispatched at 5:23 a.m., and an official emergency text went out to residents at 8:07 a.m. notifying them that Route 1 was closed at Old Bath Road on the southbound side and northbound at Beechnut Hill Road.
Officials had to demolish the mobile home and dispose of it in dumpsters in order to clear the route that provides access to the state’s coastal towns and is well-traveled during the summer. A notification about Route 1 reopening to traffic was sent around 11:30 a.m.
The crash prompted a response from the Maine State Police and the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office. An assistant district attorney for Lincoln County was also at the scene Wednesday.
Sgt. Perry Hatch and Officer Daniel Prouty of Wiscasset Police Department are leading the investigation into the crash. They are also being assisted by an incident reconstruction team from the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office.
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