Dropped cigarette caused Mapleton crash, police say

8 years ago

 

A women driving through Mapleton last Monday afternoon crashed into an unoccupied pickup and hit a home’s front porch after she dropped a cigarette on herself, according to the Maine State Police.

Jennifer Abren, 40, of Masardis was driving west on Route 163 in Mapleton when she crashed her 2009 GMC SUV shortly after 4 p.m. Nov. 14, according to a press release from Sgt. Chad Fuller of the Maine State Police.

Abren said she dropped a cigarette onto her seat and that it started burning her leg, “causing her to drive off the roadway and into the ditch,” Fuller said in the release. Her vehicle then struck a parked Ford pickup at the edge of a driveway, and came to rest after hitting the porch of the home, according to the release.

Abren was transported to The Aroostook Medical Center in Presque Isle with minor injuries, while both vehicles had “significant damage,” Fuller said. The home, owned by Eric Cogswell, also had minor damage from the car’s impact, he said.