Meredith woman seriously hurt in Rte. 104 head-on crash

MEREDITH — A local woman who was severely injured in a head-on collision on Rte. 104 Thursday morning was later flown by a DART medical helicopter to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon.

A spokesperson at Dartmouth-Hitchcock said that no condition report was available as Mary Ellen Robertson's name was not on the list of those whose medical information could be released.

Meredith Police said that Robertson, who lives in Meredith, was driving west on Rte. 104 near Upper New Hampton Road at about 8:50 a.m. in a 2000 Toyota RAV4 when it was struck head-on by a 2007 Ford F-150 pickup truck driven by William Wentzell of Holderness, which was headed east and had veered into the opposite lane.

Police Chief Kevin Morrow said that Wentzell had apparently overcorrected after first coming into contact with a 2009 Toyota Tundra pickup truck which was driven by Matthew Dillon of Claremont.

The police department press release on the incident did not say in which direction Dillon's truck was headed but the vehicle was parked on the eastbound lane shoulder about 100 yards back up the highway from the accident scene.

Wentzell suffered minor leg injuries in the accident and Dillon was not injured.

The force of the collision shattered the front end and windshield of Robertson's vehicle and took off the front tire on the driver's side of the pickup truck. A side panel from her vehicle was impaled in the truck's front tire.

There were no skid marks at the point of the collision.

Route 104 was closed to traffic for about two hours and traffic rerouted until the accident scene was cleared. Police said that the accident is still under investigation.

CAPTION:

Emergency responders carry a Meredith woman to a waiting ambulance following a head-on collision on Rte. 104 Thursday morning. She was taken by ambulance to Lakes Region General Hospital in Laconia where she was stabilized and later taken by DART helicopter to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon. (Roger Amsden photo for the Laconia Daily Sun)