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Intoxicated driver blamed for Maine paramedic’s death

Staff Report
Morning Sentinel
Copyright 2007 Blethen Maine Newspapers, Inc.

TURNER, Maine — The driver that caused an ambulance crash that claimed the life of a Wilton paramedic last month was intoxicated, according to police.

Christopher Boutin, 29, of Turner, had a blood alcohol level above the state’s legal limit when he drove into the path of the oncoming ambulance during the early morning hours of July 5, officials with the Androscoggin County Sheriff’s announced recently.

Allan Parsons, who was 46, was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident.

The Androscoggin County District Attorney’s office is making a decision on pressing charges against Boutin, who has remained hospitalized since the accident.

Parsons was treating a patient in the back of the Med-Care ambulance when the crash occurred at the intersection of Potato Road and Route 4 a little after 3 a.m. Boutin attempted to cross Route 4 onto Lone Pine Road and pulled in front of the ambulance, which, according to witnesses, was flashing its emergency lights.

The ambulance driver, Arlene Greenleaf of Bethel, who was 68 at the time, survived the crash but sustained serious injuries. The Lewiston Sun Journal reported last month that Greenleaf will likely be bedridden or in a wheelchair for at least a year.