LEWISTON — Police said Thursday a Brunswick couple and a Connecticut man died in a Wednesday afternoon head-on collision on Lisbon Street.
Scott Belongie, left, prays Wednesday afternoon at the scene of a head-on crash that killed three people and a dog on outer Lisbon Street in Lewiston just beyond Foss Road. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal Buy this Photo
Paul Dalessandro, 68, of Brunswick was driving a black 2007 Toyota Prius on Lisbon Street headed into Lewiston with his wife, Judith Montgomery, 68, Lewiston Police Lt. David St. Pierre wrote in a statement. The couple and their dog died at the scene, according to St. Pierre.
John McBean Jr., 34, of Connecticut and New Hampshire was driving a white 2021 Kia Sportage toward Lisbon when the vehicles collided, according to St. Pierre. McBean was taken to Central Maine Medical Center where he died.
St. Pierre wrote that the investigation into the triple fatal crash continues. Detectives and officers are speaking to witnesses and reviewing evidence from the scene. Toxicology tests also were ordered on both drivers.
Police “detectives and officers are speaking to witnesses, reviewing scene measurements, consulting with the medical examiner’s office and completing reports; all in order to determine causation factors that led to the tragic accident,” St. Pierre wrote.
Vehicle autopsies also will be conducted, he wrote.
“All of the people involved in the crash were extricated from the wreckage Wednesday due to the extensive damage caused by the accident, St. Pierre wrote.
Scott Belongie told the Sun Journal on Thursday that he was driving his Toyota Matrix hatchback a couple of hundred feet behind the Prius when he witnessed the “horrific” impact. He quickly pulled his car over to the shoulder to call 911 while running to the scene to see whether he could provide assistance.
“Both cars just really exploded into debris,” he said.
When he reached the Prius, he could see the driver and a dog were dead, he said. He couldn’t see anyone else in the mangled wreckage.
He and a woman who had stopped approached the white SUV, he said.
“We could hear some signs of life and at least one person we thought was alive still,” he said. “She was talking to the person inside, just telling him to calm down and help was on the way.”
Police, fire and rescue crews soon arrived on scene, he said.
Although he hadn’t seen what caused the crash, he said, the Prius had been in the travel lane directly in front of him when the collision occurred.
Judith Montgomery was an emergency housing advocate and a member of the board of directors of Tedford Housing in Brunswick, a nonprofit organization that provides emergency homeless shelter, supportive housing for previously homeless families and individuals as well as homeless prevention services, according to its website.
In testimony to the Maine Legislature in March, Montgomery urged lawmakers to pass a bill that would boost funding for the expansion and new construction of 24-hour emergency homeless shelters in Maine.
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