Cell phone seen as likely cause of fatal crash in Maine
CUMBERLAND, Maine—State police say a dropped cell phone may have triggered last month's fatal crash in which a young woman's car crossed the median on Interstate 295 in Cumberland and slammed into a television news truck.
Police said 24-year-old Heather Bouchard of Yarmouth had called a client moments before the late-morning crash on April 15. When the call was suddenly disconnected, the other party immediately called back but was forwarded to voicemail.
Bouchard was fatally injured and two people in the WCSH-TV truck suffered minor injuries.
Trooper Jeffrey Linscott said Bouchard was not wearing her seat belt at the time, although her family told him that she always wore it.
The trooper speculated that Bouchard may have unbuckled her seat belt to retrieve the cell phone and it was during that time that she lost control of her car.
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