LEWISTON – A 65-year-old New Vineyard woman died Friday morning from injuries sustained in an all-terrain vehicle accident Thursday morning.
Wilma Touchette was seriously injured when she fell off of her ATV, trying to avoid a sinkhole while riding down her private gravel driveway off of Pratt Mountain Road.
Touchette left her home at approximately 8:10 a.m. en route to work in Wilton at the Shirt Tales custom T-shirt business she co-owns with her husband, Ronald. The Touchettes park their cars on solid ground at the end of their gravel driveway and use ATVs to travel to and from their home.
Touchette was operating an Arctic Cat four-wheeler when she encountered the pothole and tried to ride around it, according to Game Warden Dan Christianson, who is investigating the incident.
A family friend told Christianson that the sinkhole formed overnight.
Approximately 40 minutes later, Ronald Touchette was riding his ATV down the driveway to his parked car, and noticed his wife lying on the ground with head injuries. Touchette was not wearing a helmet.
Emergency services were contacted, and the Maine Warden Service received notice of the incident at 9:08 a.m. LifeFlight was called immediately as Touchette was transported to Franklin Memorial Hospital. She then transported by LifeFlight to Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston.
According to the Maine Warden Service, Touchette died at approximately 9:40 a.m. Friday morning at CMMC. The incident remains under investigation.
