Three people were transported to Maine Medical Center in Portland with serious injuries Sunday after the pickup truck they were riding in crashed into a large pole on Route 1 in Brunswick.

Lt. Todd Ridlon said the crash took place in the northbound lane of Route 1, near the Route 196 connector, around 2:45 p.m.

Police said they do not know why a 2000 Ford Ranger being driven by a 49-year-old Dresden man went off the left side of Route 1 before striking the pole head-on.

The driver and two passengers, a 22-year-old woman from Dresden and a 24-year-old man from Topsham, suffered severe injuries.

Ridlon said in a statement that relatives of the injured people had not yet been notified, and “therefore their names are being withheld.”

Brunswick police had to reduce northbound and southbound traffic to one lane in each direction while they conducted an investigation. Ridlon said investigators are not ready yet to release a cause for the crash, but he did say the incident was being handled by the department’s Accident Reconstruction Unit and its Criminal Investigation Division.

Members of the Topsham and Brunswick Fire Departments assisted Brunswick police.