ANDOVER — An local man was seriously injured Saturday night when his pickup truck hit a utility pole and trees, Oxford County Deputy Sheriff Sgt. Timothy Holland said Tuesday afternoon.
Jeffrey Freeman, 34, was taken by LifeFlight helicopter to Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston, where he was in intensive care on Monday night, Holland said.
A nursing supervisor contacted Tuesday evening for Freeman’s condition said the hospital is not releasing any information about him.
Holland said the accident happened shortly before 7:03 p.m. Saturday. He said Freeman was driving a full-size 1998 Dodge pickup truck north on East Andover Road when he lost control of the truck on a curve atop a hill.
“He was driving way too fast,” Holland said.
The truck left the road, crashed through a utility pole, dropping live wires into the road. It continued on and hit trees about 10 feet down an embankment, he said.
Holland said the truck was pinned between two trees. He said Freeman wasn’t wearing a safety belt.
A motorcyclist traveling behind the pickup stopped and pulled Freeman from the wreckage, put him on the motorcycle and drove him to a house in Andover before emergency responders arrived.
“When we got there, we couldn’t find the driver,” Holland said of himself and Sheriff Wayne Gallant.
They also couldn’t get near the truck due to the live power lines. Firefighters also arrived, searched the area and couldn’t find Freeman, Holland said.
Police found the motorcycle at a house, “but no one would give up the location of the driver,” he said. “Four hours later, someone called for help for the driver.”
Holland said Med-Care Ambulance and Andover Rescue responded, taking Freeman to the Andover ball field, where he was placed aboard the medical helicopter and taken to CMMC.
He said he doesn’t know how the motorcycle driver freed Freeman from the wreckage.
“The passenger compartment (of the pickup) was completely crushed and (Freeman) should have been cut out of it,” he said.
The road was closed for five hours. Holland said the utility pole sustained at least $2,000 damage; the totaled pickup truck, $5,000.
He said the incident is still under investigation.
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