A 51-year old man from New York died in a single-car crash on Sunday in Buxton.

Buxton Police Chief Jody Thomas identified the victim as Donald J. Hashey of Endicott, N.Y. “He just veered off the road very slowly and struck a tree,” she said.

The incident occurred at 6:41 p.m. on Sunday, July 3, on Long Plains Road (Route 22) near the Elwell Farms Senior Housing project. Hashey was driving westbound in a 1999 Chevy pickup truck. The police report said Hashey went off the road to the left and hit a large tree.

Hashey, who was alone in the car, was pronounced dead at the scene and was not transported to a hospital. Officer Shawn Sanborn of Buxton Police was the investigating officer.

Thomas said results of drug and alcohol tests are pending but she said there was no evidence at the scene indicating that substance abuse was involved. “There’s a possibility it was medically related,” Thomas said about cause of the accident.

She said the speed limit along that stretch of Long Plains Road is 45 miles per hour, but she said Hashey hadn’t been speeding.

Major Randall Nichols of Maine State Police said that the Buxton fatality was one of five statewide over the Fourth of July weekend. He said the number jumped up from none over Fourth of July weekends in the past two years. “It was a very dangerous weekend on Maine highways,” he said.

Nichols said that the five fatalities made 75 for the year in Maine. He said that as of June 30 the number of fatalities had been 70 for the year, which was down 20 from 90 fatalities by that same date last year. He said officers are working hard with enforcement to keep the fatality numbers down. “We had a rough weekend,” Nichols said.