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DURHAM — A man and his daughter were hurt, and another man was charged with drunken driving following a Route 136 crash involving five vehicles Friday afternoon.

It was one of two accidents on that highway Friday.

Police said Philip D. Hamm, 56, of Freeport, was passing cars as he headed into Auburn to work. Hamm was drunk, police said.

After passing a car and nearly striking a dump truck head-on, his Chevrolet S10 pickup truck side slammed into a pair of cars and plowed into two others parked at the side of the road.

All of this was while mourners were leaving a funeral service and construction crews were flagging traffic through a work zone a quarter mile away.

“It was messy,” Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Sgt. James Jacques said. “There were people everywhere. Cars were parked on both sides of the road for the funeral service. We had to figure out who was involved in the crash and who was not.”

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Jacques said James Amaral, 55, of Wells, was stopped in the road, waiting for others to pull out of a cemetery, when Hamm’s truck slammed into the back of his Fiat 500.

That impact forced the Fiat into the back of a Pontiac Grand Am driven by Zachary Deblois, 17, of Auburn, police said. Hamm’s truck then crashed into a parked Buick owned by John T. Grover of Sebago, and a truck owned by Jessica L. Mains of Auburn.

In the Fiat, Amaral and his daughter were injured, police said. They were taken to St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center in Lewiston where they were treated and released a short time later.

Back on Route 136, just before the Durham boat launch, Hamm submitted to a field sobriety test. Sheriff’s officials said he failed the test and was arrested on a charge of operating under the influence. He was being booked at the Androscoggin County Jail in Auburn later in the day.

“There may be other charges,” Jacques said. The Sheriff’s Department was continuing to investigate Hamm’s driving as he made his way from Freeport to Auburn, where he works as a cook for Denny’s Restaurant.

The Fiat and Hamm’s pickup truck were considered totaled, police said. The other vehicles sustained less damage.

The crash occurred at 2:45 p.m. as a 56-year-old Durham woman was being remembered at a graveside service at Union Cemetery.

It was not the first crash of the day near the construction site on Route 136, police said. Earlier, two vehicles collided at Route 136 and Davis Road.

Sgt. Jacques identified the drivers as Carlene Morgan, 68, of 9 Keay Road, Lisbon Falls, and Beverly Lincoln, 73, of 29 Wabanaki Road, South Bristol.

Morgan, who was delivering mail, had slowed and signaled to turn left onto Davis Road when Lincoln, who was behind her, started to pass and the two vehicles collided.

Both drivers complained of pain, as did Lincoln’s passenger, 72-year-old Mary Lou Osgood of 18 Deer Ridge, Wiscasset. All three women were evaluated at the scene by Durham Fire and Rescue but were not transported to a hospital, Jacques said.

He estimated $1,500 damage to Morgan’s 2005 Mercury sport utility vehicle; and $4,000 to Lincoln’s 2010 Ford Focus in the 10:52 a.m. crash.

The U.S. Postal Service dispatched another carrier to deliver the mail.

No charges were filed, Jacques said.
 
Since flag crews started directing traffic at the construction site late last summer, there have been at least five accidents there, police said.

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