Posted on 02/07/2004 12:26:41 PM PST by ambrose
Saturday, February 7, 2004
Baldacci's SUV speed excessive
By DAVID HENCH, Portland Press Herald Writer
Copyright © 2004 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
The Maine State Police detective at the wheel when the governor was injured in a car crash Wednesday morning was driving too fast, according to a police investigation.
A collision reconstruction by state police concluded that Detective James R. Trask was driving between 55 mph and 65 mph when he hit a patch of ice and lost control of the Chevrolet Suburban. He and Gov. John Baldacci were both injured, though not seriously, when the SUV bumped another car, then slid off the road and rolled into some trees just north of the Bowdoinham exit on Interstate 295.
The investigation determined the vehicle was traveling too fast for the conditions. The speed limit on the interstate had been lowered from 65 mph to an advisory limit of 45 mph because of icy roads.
The event data recorder, a small computer that records vehicle speed and other information on some cars, indicated the Suburban was traveling 71 mph about five seconds before the airbags deployed. That figure, higher than the police reconstructionist estimated, may include the speed of the wheels accelerating when they started spinning on the patch of ice, a state police spokesman said.
Although the crash will be reviewed by the State Police Fleet Safety Board, Baldacci has indicated that Trask faces no disciplinary action.
"The governor made it clear yesterday there shouldn't be any consequence for Detective Trask. He was, to the governor's mind, driving responsibly," Lee Umphrey, Baldacci's communications director, said Friday. "In hindsight, everybody would agree a slower speed would be safer, but at the same time, the governor feels Detective Trask was doing his job just the way he should be doing it."
Baldacci remains thankful for Trask's handling of the vehicle as it careened down the embankment, and for how he climbed out of the SUV and tended to the governor in spite of his own injuries, Umphrey said.
Trask is recuperating from a bruised chest bone and other bruises and couldn't be reached for comment. Baldacci, who returned to work the day after the accident, suffered a broken rib and a mild concussion.
That morning, Baldacci left the Blaine House early for a 6:30 a.m. Portland appointment. Trask drove onto Interstate 95 at the Western Avenue interchange in Augusta and headed south.
The state Department of Transportation had lowered the speed limit to 45 mph just before midnight. The Suburban should have passed a flashing sign indicating the lower limit at Old Winthrop Road, a DOT worker said, before the SUV entered I-295 heading to Portland.
Near Bowdoinham, where the DOT had already salted the highway, Timothy Putnam of Richmond was driving south. He had just passed another car when he saw the Suburban coming up quickly behind him, so he pulled back into the travel lane.
As the black 2004 Suburban passed, it hit a patch of ice and slid into the left rear of Putnam's red 2003 Camry. Both cars spun on the roadway, with the Camry ending up in the median and the Suburban about 200 feet off the road, sitting on its driver's side against some trees.
The event data recorder indicated that the Suburban's speed went from 71 mph five seconds before the airbags deployed, to 66 mph, then 59 mph in the next two seconds. The recorder also showed there was no throttle applied during that five-second period, and that three seconds before the airbags deployed, the brakes were activated.
The collision reconstructionist concluded the Suburban was going between 55 mph and 65 mph based on the vehicle's distance from the road and the damage, the report said. The report did not factor in the distance that the vehicles traveled on the road because there were no skid marks to indicate where the cars came into contact.
Putnam, who was not injured and was able to continue in his car to work, said the reconstruction confirms his recollection.
"They were coming up on me and were accelerating right at the point of passing me and then we were spinning around," Putnam said. The slick spot must have been an isolated patch of ice because the road surface conditions seemed to be "pretty good," he said.
Baldacci called the Putnams on Friday morning to apologize and make sure they were OK.
"He was very gracious," said Laura Putnam, Timothy's wife. "He invited us up for a cup of coffee at our convenience."
The Fleet Safety Board will review the crash to determine whether it was preventable. The board also determines whether any additional training is warranted or whether any discipline is appropriate, said state police spokesman Stephen McCausland.
Law enforcement officers are required to obey traffic laws unless they are engaged in an emergency situation or trying to catch up to an offender, McCausland said. However, Trask will not be issued a citation and will return to his position on the executive protection team, he said. "We want him to recuperate and want him back to work as soon as he is able to," McCausland said.
He noted that "that was not the only collision that occurred Wednesday morning. There were dozens of crashes from Bangor south. Many of the crashes that occurred were most likely for the same identical reason."
McCausland said the event data recorder is new technology that has been used about three dozen times in the past year.
The recorders are now standard equipment in General Motors and many Ford models. Unlike an airplane's "black box" that continually stores data, the car device records over the information every few seconds. When the airbags deploy, the recorder retains information for the previous five seconds and several seconds afterward. The device retains information on traveling speed, throttle position, brake use and engine speed. There are between 25 million and 40 million recorders in cars nationally, according to industry observers.
Hasn't anyone figured out how to disconnect those data recorders yet?
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