LEWISTON — Police said excessive speed appeared to be a factor in a single-car crash on Ferry Road just before midnight Thursday that claimed the life of a 22-year-old man.

Police said Dakota Paige of Lewiston was ejected from his 2002 Chevy Cavalier and came to rest in a nearby yard after losing control of the vehicle, skidding into a patch of trees in front of 313 Ferry Road.

He was dead when emergency crews arrived, police said.

The crash occurred on a section of Ferry Road a few hundred feet beyond Cotton Road. It appeared the driver had been heading toward River Road when he lost control, skidding off the roadway and into a patch of trees separating two houses.

Paige was likely going too fast for road conditions, Lt. David St. Pierre wrote in a news release.

“At this time it is unknown if alcohol or drugs were a factor, though there were no outward signs indicating such,” he wrote. 

Charles Large, who lives in a home near the crash site, said he heard a thud that shook his house at about 11:45 p.m. When he went outside to investigate, he saw no sign of the crash.

The car had come to rest overturned in the shadows beneath a patch of trees. The victim, thrown from the vehicle, came to rest in the yard. The first witnesses on the scene reported Paige was not breathing.

Police searched the area but found no other victims. 

Marks could be seen on the pavement where the car had skidded off Ferry Road. The roadway appeared dry near the crash scene, although it was strewn with fallen leaves at the time of the crash.