I've been on those roads a number of times. They are dangerous at 50, much less 70. Idiots. This borders on Darwin award territory.
Posted on 09/13/2002 2:07:45 PM PDT by Tancred
Fourteen forestry workers from Honduras and Guatemala were killed when the van they were riding in pitched off a one-lane bridge into the Allagash Wilderness Waterway. It was the worst motor vehicle accident in Maine history.
A single passenger survived when he was able to escape through the van's rear window and swim to the surface in 15 feet of water.
The men were riding to a remote logging camp about 8 a.m. Thursday when they set out to cross a wooden bridge with no guardrails that spans the passage between Eagle Lake and Churchill Lake.
State police troopers suspect imprudent speed may have contributed to the accident.
The van is believed to have been traveling 70 mph on the dirt road approaching John's Bridge, said Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety. The road is posted for no more than 45 mph, but it is a private road and speeding is not a violation.
State police will reconstruct the accident to determine how fast the rented van was going when the driver lost control about three-fourths of the way across the 260-foot bridge.
"It apparently hit a curbing on the bridge, went off the road, overturned and went into the water upside down, landing in about 15 feet of water," McCausland said. He said the van rode up on the steel beam that forms the bridge curbing for some distance before it toppled over the edge, falling nearly 20 feet to the water below.
The survivor was able to climb out the rear window and swim about 30 feet to shore, where he eventually flagged down passing forestry workers.
Winds up to 45 mph had led to a travel advisory for the northern part of the state, though state police do not believe wind was a factor in the accident, McCausland said.
Fourteen men - 10 from Honduras and four from Guatemala - were trapped in the van. The survivor, a Guatemalan in his early 20s, injured his shoulder but did not require hospitalization, McCausland said. A Spanish-speaking interpreter was brought in to help police interview him.
Embassy officials from both Central American countries were working to determine the men's identities and their hometowns so their families could be notified. News of the deaths will be a tragic blow for their communities, they said.
"Most of the people that leave their town to work are usually respected and admired for their courage to go elsewhere and work for a better future," said Ana Villacorta, a spokeswoman for the Guatemalan Embassy in Washington, D.C.
Gov. Angus King said in a statement that he would contact the leaders of the victims' home nations to express his condolences.
"We will continue to do whatever we can to help those people who lost a loved one in this terrible accident," he said.
Police were not releasing the workers' names pending positive identification by the state medical examiner. Some family members, including the wife of one of the men, had arrived during the afternoon at the camp where the bodies were taken.
The accident occurred in one of the most extensive tracts of wilderness in New England, 90 miles from the nearest paved state road in an area listed on maps as Township 9 Range 13. It is at the entrance to the Allagash Wilderness Waterway, a state-administered area popular with canoeists, 300 miles north of Portland.
Warden David Allen, who lives nearby, was at the scene 20 minutes after passing forestry workers found the lone survivor and called for help at 8:30 a.m. But it took 3 1/2 hours for divers with the state police and Maine Warden Service to reach the area using floatplanes, helicopters and cars.
"It's an extremely remote area of northwestern Maine and it's in the middle of 10 million forested acres," said Mark Latti, spokesman for the Maine Warden Service. "It's in the middle of nowhere, intersected by a few main logging roads."
The roads, however, are designed to handle 10-ton logging trucks and are generally in good condition, he said. The bridge, while only a single lane without guardrails, would be strong enough and wide enough to accommodate a fully-loaded logging truck, he said.
Lucy Perkins, a receptionist at the Telos checkpoint near the accident, said motorists often drive "way too fast" on the unpatrolled roads, and driving on wooden bridge planks can be tricky, even at a safe speed. "You just can't speed on these roads and expect to get by without something happening," she said.
The workers have lived together in Caribou since they arrived in Maine in May. They set out early Thursday morning for a work camp that is about five miles beyond the bridge and is owned by Seven Islands Land Co., a timber company with extensive land holdings in Maine.
The workers were riding in a rented 15-passenger Dodge van that is registered in Louisiana, McCausland said. He did not know whether the men were wearing seat belts or whether the driver was licensed, both of which are required when transporting agricultural workers, even on private land.
In June 1998, a blown tire caused a van carrying 15 Mexican forestry workers to roll over in Aroostook County, killing two men and injuring 10 others.
John Connors, Maine director of LULAC, a Latino civil rights group, questioned whether large vans are appropriate for dirt logging roads.
"I think those vans have no place in the backwoods," he said.
Thursday's accident was the deadliest in state history, surpassing the 1958 collision of a car and tanker truck that claimed seven lives in Richmond, McCausland said.
The men involved in Thursday's accident worked for Pinebelt Inc. of Old Town, which had been hired by Seven Islands to clear a woodlot. Seven Islands also owns John's Bridge, which the company says was recently improved.
Thursday afternoon, workers used a power winch to hoist the van from the water, loading it onto a flatbed truck.
The wreckage and the bodies were to be taken to the state police crime lab in Augusta on Thursday night, McCausland said.
The van is believed to have been traveling 70 mph on the dirt road approaching John's Bridge…
There’s a genius. Vans are so known for their high-speed handling on dirt roads and one lane wooden bridges without guardrails.
I've been on those roads a number of times. They are dangerous at 50, much less 70. Idiots. This borders on Darwin award territory.
Seat belts? Quite possibly the reason they all drowned.
Idiots.
Only one of them was driving. I guess we’ll never know if the others complained about the speed.
I can’t even imagine going 70 mph in a 15-passenger van down a dirt road headed for a bridge, and I’ve done some pretty stupid things in a moving vehicle.
You have to see these roads; they look like unpaved interstates and carry eighteen-wheeler log trucks going like the hammers of hell. You go less than 70 at your own risk.
Only after the accident.
I drive that road and cross that same bridge at lease 5 times a month in a 42,000 lb straight job at 75-80, and been doing it now for 25 years only thing thats changed is now my welding truck is a twin screw instead of a single x and 20,000 lb heavier....
Don't know anyone except tourists and flat landers that drive that road, Golden Road, Reality Road, yada yada at less than 70....
I say that was FIRSTLY. I guess all the unemployed in Maine are busy heisting oxycontin to sell on the street in order to make ends meet.
"Most of the people that leave their town to work are usually respected and admired for their courage to go elsewhere and work for a better future," said Ana Villacorta, a spokeswoman for the Guatemalan Embassy in Washington, D.C.
I heard a rumor that the men of Maine used to be respected for their logging prowess. I guess we'll have to update the statue of Paul Bunyan in Maine. "Paul Bunyan--another American who won't do the work that courageous Hondurans and Guatemalens will do."
Gov. Angus King said in a statement that he would contact the leaders of the victims' home nations to express his condolences.
The Governor spoke in Washinton County a few months ago. Most of the audience consisted of blue=haired old ladies who were primarily interested in making sure the governor supported taxpayer funding of their prescription drug habits. But the ruggedly individualistc governor did manage to say a few words about the catastrophic economic conditions in Washington county.
He confessed that even if he were "a combination fo Tom Jefferson and Plato he couldn't do anything about the fact that the global economy was passing Washington county by."
Then he expressed his great excitement over the fact that he was going to tour the country in his new winnebago when he left office.....
Okay--we'll replace his knit cap with a sombrero, shave off his beard and put on a big mustache, and have him hold a guitar instead of an axe.
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