LEWISTON — Although an eyewitness told police that Ghislain Cloutier crossed the centerline, causing Tuesday’s accident that killed Cloutier and his son, police say Cloutier did not cross the centerline.
A preliminary investigation has concluded that the other car, driven by Ralph Ryder Jr., 59, of Livermore crossed the line, hitting the Cloutier vehicle head-on, said Capt. Ray Lafrance of the Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Department.
The Cloutiers were in the family’s 2007 Honda Accord on Tuesday morning, heading west toward Lewiston on Route 202 in Leeds from their home in Winthrop. Fourteen-year-old Casey Cloutier was expected to join the St. Dominic Academy junior varsity hockey team for an out-of-town game. Team members were on the bus awaiting Cloutier’s arrival at the Auburn school when they learned of the accident.
Ryder was driving a 2003 Ford Explorer. He was taken to Central Maine Medical Center in critical condition but was quickly upgraded to stable condition. He has since been released from the hospital.
According to police, the Cloutiers died at the scene. They leave behind wife and mother, Susan Cloutier, and 11-year-old son and brother, Chase.
Lafrance said Friday that after re-interviewing the sole witness and examining the physical evidence at the scene, and after Maine State Police ran the scenario through the accident reconstruction process, police concluded, “The witness had made a mistake as far as which vehicle was headed which way.”
Lafrance said police talked to the Cloutier family “the minute we found out” Ghislain Cloutier’s car did not cross the centerline. Lt. Glenn Holt visited the family on New Year’s Day to explain the scenario as soon as police had finished re-interviewing the witness.
“We have to correct this,” Lafrance said. “We want to make this right. We don’t want people to think Mr. Cloutier crossed the centerline.”
According to Lafrance, police believe the witness saw the accident but didn’t see the cars prior to the accident. She was the only witness and was the one who called 911. She “saw the vehicles in the position they were in. We feel that at this point, she assumed, because of the way the vehicles were, the Cloutier vehicle had crossed the centerline.”
But when Maine State Police ran the reconstruction, Lafrance said, including crash impacts, the witness statement didn’t make sense scientifically. The reconstruction worked with the Cloutiers heading toward Lewiston and Ryder heading toward Augusta.
And when state police viewed security video from a nearby convenience store, Lafrance said the Cloutier vehicle was seen just seconds before the crash in the westbound lane heading toward Lewiston.
Police are unsure why Ryder crossed the centerline. Lafrance said Ryder told police that he remembered driving toward Augusta and then waking up in the hospital, but he did not remember the accident.
Lafrance said it’s not uncommon for witnesses to accidents to be wrong about details, which is “why we do a thorough reconstruction and a thorough investigation.”
The results are considered preliminary and the accident remains under investigation, Lafrance said. Once finished, police will turn it over to the Androscoggin County District Attorney’s Office for review.
Friends of the Cloutier family have set up a fundraising page to help Susan and Chase Cloutier. The fundraising goal is set at $10,000. As of midday Friday, contributions had passed $6,700.
A number of people have left messages of condolence on the page, including a former co-worker from the NewPage mill in Rumford.
On Saturday night, when the St. Dom’s boys’ junior varsity, boys’ varsity and girls’ varsity hockey teams are scheduled to play at the Norway Savings Bank Arena in Auburn, the St. Dom’s Booster Club will sell ribbons at the door for $1 each to help raise money for the Cloutier family.
Before the boys’ varsity game starts at 8:20 p.m., the family intends to issue a statement, and coaches and players will call for a moment of silence in the memory of Ghislain and Casey Cloutier.
Casey was a freshman at St. Dom’s. According to a family spokesperson, the school has arranged for two buses to travel to Tuesday morning’s funeral at St. Francis Xavier in Winthrop. One bus is for the junior varsity team, and the second is for freshmen who would like to attend the service. The Mass will begin at 11 a.m.
jmeyer@sunjournal.com
Send questions/comments to the editors.
