2 hospitalized after Ellsworth police cruiser crashes into SUV

An Ellsworth police police officer crashed his cruiser into an SUV on Bucksport Road on Sunday, causing the other vehicle to roll over several times and injuring its occupants, according to police.

Officer Zachary Taylor, 26, was driving the cruiser west on Route 1 in Ellsworth around 12:45 p.m. when he tried to make a u-turn at the Twin Hill Road intersection, according to the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department.

As Taylor turned from the breakdown lane, the cruiser struck the passenger side of a Toyota SUV  that was passing it on the left, “causing it to roll over several times before coming to rest on its side in a ditch,” Deputy Kyle Kramer wrote in a synopsis of the crash.

The driver of the Toyota, a 50-year-old woman, and her passenger, 70, both of New Hampshire, suffered minor injuries in the crash and were taken by ambulance to Northern Light Maine Coast Hospital in Ellsworth.

Both the Toyota and the Ellsworth police cruise had to be towed from the collision site.

Glenn Moshier, Ellsworth’s city manager and chief of police, said Monday that Taylor was trying to turn to make a traffic stop on another vehicle when the collision occurred. He said Taylor was not injured in the collision.

“He was pretty shook up but outside of that, he had no injuries,” Moshier said.

Moshier declined to comment further, saying the crash remains under investigation by the sheriff’s department. He said it is standard procedure for another law enforcement agency to investigate when any police department has an officer involved in a crash in order to avoid conflicts of interest.