A student was struck by a pickup truck while crossing Bedford Street in Portland Monday evening, according to USM officials.
Aleksander Bresler, 28, of New Gloucester, was crossing the street around 7 p.m. when he was hit by a blue Ford Ranger driven by Peter Manning, 62, of Portland.
Lt. Mike Jones of the Portland Police Department said Bresler was treated onsite by medics for minor injuries.
Manning was not arrested, Jones said. He did not know whether charges were being filed. It was not a hit and run, he said.
USM acting Police Chief Ronald Saindon said campus police responded to the call. Since the accident happened on on a city street, they called Portland Police, who arrived soon after with an ambulance.
The accident is being blamed on the lack of lighting at that spot.
“At 7 o’clock this time of year, that’s a dark stretch of road and lighting was an issue,” said USM spokesman Bob Caswell.
USM doesn’t currently have any plans to install lights or otherwise improve visibility, he said.
“I would say that’s something that should to be taken under consideration if it isn’t already,” he said.
Caswell said the crosswalk is safer than it was before the Alumni Skywalk was built; thousands more students used to cross the street everyday before the walkway was built connecting Abromson to the Masterton courtyard, he said.
Saindon said it was the first time he had heard of someone being hit on a crosswalk near campus.
Paul Koenig contributed reporting.
“Caswell said the crosswalk is safer than it was before the Alumni Skywalk was built; thousands more students used to cross the street everyday before the walkway was built connecting Abromson to the Masterton courtyard, he said.”
The skywalk doesn’t make the crosswalk any safer, obviously. It just makes it less trafficked.