FRANCESTOWN -- Police are still searching for two juvenile males who fled the scene of a Tuesday night accident that left two female passengers injured with one of them requiring a Life Flight helicopter to get medical treatment.

According to Fire Chief Larry Kullgren, rescue workers were alerted to a single-vehicle accident on Scobie Road at 11:44 p.m. When Kullgren arrived, he learned the accident had happened as much as an hour earlier. The two juvenile females who had been injured in the crash called friends in Manchester, who then drove to the scene before anyone called 911, according to Kullgren.

“When I arrived, I found a group of teenagers standing in the road,” he said. “One of the females who had been in the crash was lying down covered in a blanket and was in and out of consciousness.”

Kullgren said both girls showed no outward signs of trauma, but due to one girl’s altered level of consciousness and complaints of neck and back pain, he called for a helicopter to transport the girl to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon. The second girl was taken by New Boston ambulance to Elliot Hospital in Manchester.

Officials believe all four occupants of the vehicle were under 18, said Kullgren. The accident occurred near the boat launch on Scobie Road. The driver of the Isuzu Rodeo lost control around a corner and the car left the roadway and struck a tree. The car was on its way from the Dodge Hill Road intersection to Route 136, according to Kullgren.

State Police responded to the call and are handling the investigation.

DUBLIN — Traffic delays are expected for the next two months as the Route 101 Pedestrian Safety Improvement Project will begin next week, Selectman Charlie Champagne said.
Work on the project is set to start next Tuesday, the day after Labor Day, and is set to end in the middle of November, he said.

“It is actually starting. The work around the Town Hall is actually starting,” he said.

The rock will be lowered, the oval will be expanded and new sidewalks, crosswalks and lighting will be added to the center of town along Route 101, he said.

Because the project will require at times closing one lane of travel on Route 101, delays should be expected, he said.

“There will be delays, one-way traffic on 101, during that construction period,” he said.

Police Chief James Letourneau said he estimates traffic delays would be no more than five minutes at a time.

“I would say they are going to try to keep the wait to a minimum,” Letourneau said of CSSI of Bedford, which has been contracted to complete the project.

“It will be for a large part of the time down to one-lane of traffic in the center of town so there will be alternating traffic,” he said. “Patience is going to have to be the virtue for all of us that commute here on 101.”