In a tragic and ironic accident, an eight-year-old girl was struck and killed in Van Buren by an ambulance on Wednesday as she was trying to cross the road. She ultimately succumbed to her injuries.
[RELATED: Lisbon Man Struck a 72-Year-Old Pedestrian Before Fleeing the Scene, Later Arrested in Brunswick…]
The girl was attempting to cross Main Street in Van Buren near Kennedy Terrace as an ambulance from the Van Buren Ambulance Service was traveling north on the road.
The ambulance struck the child, causing life-threatening injuries. Ambulance personnel tried to help the girl, but they could not save her.
The girl lived in one of the houses near the site of the crash.
The Maine State Police arrived at around 4:01 p.m. and responded with assistance from the Presque Isle Police Department, Van Buren Fire Department, and Soderberg Construction.
The ambulance was reportedly not responding to an emergency at the time of the crash, and police do not believe that speed was a factor. The cause of the crash remains under investigation, but the ambulance driver was not arrested, and law enforcement did not suggest that he is believed to be at fault.
This is just the latest in a recent string of tragic crashes involving pedestrians, many of which have been fatal. Those incidents have included two instances of illegal immigrants from Angola operating with Maine driver’s licenses, striking and killing pedestrians on two consecutive days. Another unidentified driver in Portland lost control of her vehicle and struck two people at a coffee shop, and a man in Topsham ran over a 72-year-old woman in a parking lot there this week.
