FARMINGTON — The man charged with drunken driving after his truck slammed into another and killed the driver in a fiery wreck in Strong on Tuesday night told a sheriff’s deputy he’d drunk six beers and was speeding, according to a police affidavit.
Mark Garner, 24, of Rangeley admitted to Franklin County Deputy Andrew Morgan that “this whole situation was his fault.” Garner said he was driving too fast and lost control of his vehicle, according to Morgan’s affidavit.
Garner’s 2007 GMC pickup truck crossed the centerline on Lambert Hill Road and slammed head-on into a 2004 Chevrolet pickup registered to a Wilton man, Sheriff Scott Nichols Sr. said in a news release Wednesday.
The dead man’s identity had not been released as of Thursday afternoon.
Investigators said the man was trapped in his burning truck and died at the scene. His body was taken to the state Medical Examiner’s Office in Augusta for positive identification.
Garner was arrested at the scene on a charge of felony aggravated operating under the influence resulting in death and is being held on $15,000 cash bail at the Franklin County jail in Farmington.
Before his arrest, Garner and his two passengers, Dennis Hanson, 39, of Phillips and Felicia Bell, 32, of Phillips, were taken to Franklin Memorial Hospital in Farmington.
There, Garner told Morgan that he drank four to six beers prior to the crash and he didn’t feel impaired while driving, according to the affidavit.
Morgan wrote that he arrived at the scene to find both trucks on fire and Garner, Hanson and Bell frantic and yelling for help. Bell said she had driven Garner and Hanson to Strong to get new tires and afterward Garner drove because she was driving too slow.
“Felicia stated that Mark was driving 80 mph just prior to the crash,” Morgan wrote. He also said Hanson told him, “Mark wanted to show off how fast his truck could go.”
dperry@sunmediagroup.net
Send questions/comments to the editors.
