A crash on Route 17 in Somerville in February that took the life of a Camden man occurred due to a combination of bad road conditions, speed, and tire tread depth, according to Lt. Rand Maker of the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office.
The accident occurred the morning of Feb. 21 when a westbound 2004 Jeep Liberty operated by Alden F. Pease, 20, of Camden, crossed into the oncoming lane and struck a Pine State Trading Company delivery truck operated by Lee A. Reynolds, 26, of Litchfield.
The accident occurred near the intersection of Route 17 and the Jones and Hewett Roads, just uphill from the Somerville Fire Station, and was reported around 7 a.m.
Pease died as a result of injuries sustained in the crash, and Reynolds appeared uninjured, according to an LCSO press release at the time. Both were wearing seat belts.
After an inspection of Pease’s vehicle, nothing was found to be mechanically wrong, according to Maker.
“The tires on the vehicle met inspection standards but that’s what they did – just met the standards,” he said.
“We had really terrible road conditions, we had somebody driving way too fast for those conditions,” and at least one of the tires was only at the minimum standard for tread depth, Maker said. “That unfortunately resulted in that crash.”
It was a combination of “a lot of bad things,” Maker said.
