MONMOUTH — A Sabattus man died Friday morning in a two-car crash on Route 202, police said.

Kenneth Rucker, 48, was driving a 1997 Lincoln Town Car westbound toward Augusta when he crossed the centerline, hitting a Dodge Caravan driven by Denise Glidden, 32, of Augusta at 9:40 a.m., according to Monmouth police.

Police said Rucker died at the scene, and Glidden was seriously injured. She was taken to Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston, where she was listed in critical condition Friday afternoon.

Glidden went into surgery at 11 a.m. and was still in surgery just before 3 p.m., according to officer Dana Wessling. Doctors were attempting to save her badly damaged foot. She also suffered a broken leg and broken wrists, among other injuries.

Glidden was upside down in the driver’s seat and was not wearing her seat belt when Wessling arrived, he said.

Witnesses reported that Rucker had been driving recklessly, speeding and passing multiple cars just before the crash. Wessling said Rucker was trying to pass another car when he crashed into Glidden’s van.

The Lincoln careened into a ditch across the road from TJ’s Pizzeria, and Glidden’s car stopped some 30 feet away.

Scott Finlay, who was on Route 202 driving toward Augusta moments before the crash, said the Lincoln “passed three vehicles at the same time.” The driver also drifted into the opposite lane, Finlay said. “He was booking it.”

Finlay and his wife, Kristin, came upon the crash moments later and tried to help Glidden.

Wessling said that when he arrived at the scene, Glidden was conscious but not alert, and he saw an empty child’s car seat in the van. Fearing a baby had been ejected, police officers and passers-by began to search for a child.

The Finlays said the search was frantic, along the road and in nearby woods.

According to Wessling, while this was going on, Glidden became conscious enough to tell him she didn’t have the baby with her, which her husband Darrick Glidden confirmed about half an hour later.

Route 202 was closed in both directions for several hours while Maine State Police reconstructed the crash, and police remained at the scene until just after 2:30 p.m.

In the past 10 years, Rucker had one motor vehicle conviction for driving with excessive noise in 2008, and he was involved in a minor accident in Lewiston in November 2013.

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