Father doesn’t blame driver who hit son on bridge

A 12-year-old boy who was hit by a pickup truck while attempting to jump from a Route 202 bridge in Buxton last week is facing a long recovery, according to his father.

“It’s a miracle he’s alive,” Chris Vincent of Portland said in an interview Wednesday.

Jack Vincent was still in the intensive care unit at Maine Medical Center but was sitting up Wednesday, his father said.

“He’s out of the critical stage,” Vincent said.

Vincent says he doesn’t blame the driver of the pickup truck that hit his son, although he said he does want to speak with the driver when he gets an opportunity.

“It was strictly an accident,” he said.

York County Sheriff Maurice Ouellette identified the driver as Gregory Harriman, 26, of Waterboro. Ouellette said last week that he didn’t expect the driver would face any charges.

Ouellette has said he believes the state should put up a fence at the bridge to prevent children from jumping off it.

Vincent, however, said he thought a fence would be a waste of money. He believes children would still find a way to jump into the Saco River from the bridge. He suggested building a catwalk on the old bridge abutments downstream from the bridge. That would give kids a place to jump without them getting up on the highway.

Vincent described what happened the day of the accident. Jack, who lives in Scarborough with his mother, went to the Buxton swimming hole that day with his dad and 8-year-old brother.

“It was hot that day,” said Vincent, and a bunch of kids were at the popular swimming area on the Saco River. He described it as a fun place where hundreds of kids go to swim and where he had gone as a child to swim and jump.

They had been there three hours and were preparing to leave when the accident occurred. Vincent was standing on the old abutment on the Buxton shore below the bridge. He had been talking to his son.

“I saw a trailer truck coming, and I stopped talking to him,” Vincent said.

After the trailer truck passed, his son darted into the road and was hit by a pickup traveling in the opposite direction.

He said his son, whom he described as athletic and a fighter, sustained ” a whole list of injuries.”

“He’s bouncing back,” Vincent said.