A large van transporting exotic animals from Augusta to Massachusetts rolled off Interstate 295 southbound during heavy snowfall Wednesday morning, leaving the driver and responding law enforcement officers to decide how best to respond without risking injury to the animals or other drivers on the highway.
Just before 8 a.m. Wednesday, Maine State Police Trooper George Loder responded to the single- vehicle crash between the Exit 28 on- and off-ramps into Brunswick.
A white Dodge modified van driven by 48- year- old Gary Goodwin of Baltimore, Md., had rolled into soft snow in the ditch, Loder said.
Goodwin, an employee of Perfect Birds LLC, of Jay, Fla., was not injured, according to Loder. Goodwin reported that the climate-controlled van contained parrots, parakeets, chinchillas, ferrets, rabbits and guinea pigs.
“We didn’t dare open it, out of concerns for the parrots and parakeets, which wouldn’t survive in this temperature,” Loder said.
At the time of crash, heavy snow was falling and temperatures hovered in the high 20s.
So the Maine State Police called Brunswick Police Animal Control Officer Heidi Nelson.
“I said, ‘We don’t want to open the vehicle at this point to check the condition of the animals because: one, they’re used to being in a controlled climate; and two, we don’t want the animals, if they’ve escaped from their cages, busting down the door to cause accidents,” Nelson said.
She suggested a tow truck take the van to a contained area — possibly the Brunswick Public Works garage — to allow the driver to safely open the door and inspect the animals.
But due to the location of the crash, a tow truck would have had to continue south to Freeport and turn back to get to the Brunswick garage, so Brunswick communications officers instead obtained permission to use the Freeport Public Works building.
Then Nelson called local veterinarians to see who could treat any potentially injured exotic animals. She found a vet in Yarmouth to keep on standby.
In the meantime, a single tow truck was not enough to pull the van from the snow bank, so a second truck responded, and the van and driver rode to the Freeport Public Works garage on a flat bed, Nelson said.
The driver was scheduled to inspect the van and animals early Wednesday afternoon. No further information about the condition of the creatures was available at press time.
bbrogan@timesrecord.com
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