Airborne car crashes, injures UMF student, damages four vehicles at car sales lot

NEW SHARON – A 22-year-old University of Maine at Farmington student was injured after the car she was driving went off the road, hit a ditch and went airborne for 60 feet across a car sales lot before hitting a minivan and another two cars Thursday afternoon.

Cassandra Randazzo of Lakeville, Mass., was traveling on Route 27 from Skowhegan back to UMF after an afternoon of student teaching, when her late model Toyota sedan suddenly swerved off the road and went down into a drainage ditch. Her car managed to squeeze between a mailbox and a utility pole on the way down but then hit the edge of the Tuttles Auto Sales LLC paved lot and was launched into the air and propelled across a 60-foot expanse of parking lot.

“We heard the noise and then saw a car fly right through the air,” said Michael Parady, a salesman at Tuttles who was in the office at the time. “I couldn’t believe it.” Randazzo’s car flew slightly tilted sideways and then hit the top back window and roof of a new 2010 Dodge Caravan. The impact crushed the back of the minivan into the middle seat row. Ricocheting off, Randazzo’s car then crashed into a 2009 Chevrolet Colbalt parked across the lot and smashed into another sedan next to it. The caravan was forced forward into a late model Jeep Cherokee, damaging it. The Toyota’s impact into the two other cars caused it to spin 180 degrees around where it came to rest.

The emergency call from the sales crew, who were watching the spectacle from inside the office, came in at 4:16 p.m. Parady reached into the Toyota and turned it off and stayed with Randazzo until rescue crews arrived on the scene.

Members of the New Sharon Fire and Rescue Department cut off the Toyota’s roof in order to get Randazzo safely out of the car. A NorthStar EMS crew assisted in extricating her and transported her to Franklin Memorial Hospital in Farmington. A hospital supervisor at 6:30 p.m. said Randazzo was undergoing treatment.

State Police Trooper Jed Malcore said she apparently suffered a head injury and couldn’t remember how the accident occurred. The investigation continues, but Malcore didn’t anticipate charges would be filed.

Tuttles salesman Dave Beaupre said the Caravan and the Colbalt had just been sold. The Caravan’s new owner had to be called and told not to pick up his minivan today, he said.

“It was really lucky nobody was killed,” Parady said. “It was unusual we were all inside when it happened.”