Fork trucks Harlow Essex

A Wiscasset woman who died March 20 on U.S. Route 201 in The Forks jumped from the moving pickup truck and either hit a guardrail or was run over by the truck, and there will be no charges in the case, police said Thursday.

Kimberly Hill, 33, died of blunt force trauma to the chest and head consistent with having been run over by the truck or from her body striking a nearby guardrail, Department of Public Safety spokesman Steve McCausland said Thursday afternoon. No other vehicles were involved.

Tyler Poland, 29, of Greene, the truck’s driver, who has a lengthy record of motor vehicle convictions, will not face criminal charges, McCausland said.

“This is an accident, ” McCausland said. “No foul play suspected.” He said alcohol likely played a part in Hill’s actions.

“She had exited the pickup truck driven by her boyfriend while it was in motion, ” McCausland said by phone Thursday.

McCausland said details of blood tests done on Hill and Poland are not being released, but he said alcohol likely was a factor in her jumping from the truck and that Poland is not charged with a crime.

The Office of the Maine Attorney General and the Office of Chief Medical Examiner participated in the investigation. McCausland said the only interviews with Poland were those conducted at the scene that night by Somerset County sheriff’s deputies.

“The findings are consistent with what he initially told deputies, which was the only law enforcement contact we had, ” he said. “He told them that she had jumped from the truck.”

Maine State Police investigators met with Hill’s family Thursday in Augusta to tell them of the results of the investigation.

‘COULD LIGHT UP ANY ROOM’

Sheila Hill, who said in an email to the Morning Sentinel on Wednesday night that the family was scheduled to have a meeting with investigators Thursday afternoon, did not reply to an email or a phone call for comment Thursday after police made the information public.

According to her obituary in the Boothbay Register, Hill, whom friends and relatives called Kimi, had two children, 9-year-old twins Macie and Brody.

“Kimi could light up any room she walked into with her infectious smile. She savored every sunny day, every beautiful moment, every cherished memory. She found joy in life’s littlest moments, ” the obituary said.

Neither of the children was in the 2016 GMC Denali pickup truck when Poland called 911 to report Hill had been hurt after she jumped from the moving vehicle.

First responders met the truck just after 2 a.m. March 20 as Poland drove south on U.S. Route 201, bringing Hill to the nearest hospital, possibly Redington-Fairview General Hospital in Skowhegan, police said.

Joe Christopher, owner of Three Rivers Whitewater Rafting and The Inn by the River, both on U.S. 201, said in March that the accident happened near Three Rivers, by Kelly Brook.

Hill and Poland had been dating for at least a year, Poland’s brother, Lance Poland, told the Portland Press Herald after the accident, but a 2013 state accident report shows Hill was a passenger in an Auburn accident in which Poland was driving in 2013.

CHECKERED RECORD

Tyler Poland has a checkered driving record that involves several motor vehicle accidents and short jail sentences for criminal convictions, including assaulting an officer, according to state records and Morning Sentinel archives.

He with his father, Daniel Poland, in Kingfield, and charged with assault on an officer, a class C felony, and obstructing government administration, a class D crime, after an altercation with a Franklin County sheriff’s deputy.

The deputy had stopped a pickup truck registered to Poland but driven by his father, Daniel Poland, of Turner, after it ran a stop sign in Kingfield. The deputy determined Daniel Poland was intoxicated, Franklin County Sheriff Scott Nichols said at the time.

As the deputy started to conduct field sobriety tests, another man — later found to be Tyler Poland — emerged from the woods and started verbally abusing the deputy, made threatening gestures toward him and attempted to strike him, according to Nichols. Tyler Poland then ran back into the woods but came out and attacked the deputy from behind, throwing him to the ground, Nichols said.

Poland ran down the street and finally was found by an officer with a tracking dog.

“Deputies theorize that Tyler Poland was in a separate vehicle when he saw his father (who was driving Tyler Poland’s pickup truck) get pulled over. At that point, deputies believe Tyler Poland decided he was going to try and help his father by attacking the deputy, ” Nichols said at the time.

Poland was sentenced to 14 days in jail for convictions on a felony charge of assault on a police officer as well as obstructing government administration in March 2015, and had to pay $177 restitution. He also was sentenced to a day in jail while that case was pending for a conviction on a charge of violating bail conditions. His father was fined $700 and his license was suspended for 30 days in December.

Poland crashed most recently on Jan. 30 in Lewiston, when he fell asleep while driving at 5:11 p.m. and crossed the centerline on Alfred Plourde Parkway, striking a Cadillac SUV with his 2015 GMC pickup.

He also crashed last Sept. 23 in Greene while driving a passenger van on Quaker Ridge Road. Records show he cut off an oncoming car while trying to make a turn. Poland initially left the scene on foot but later came back and was charged with leaving the scene of an accident involving injury.

On May 18, 2014, Poland crashed in Wiscasset at dusk when the vehicle in front of him turned from Bath Road onto Birch Point Road. Poland swerved off the road and into the side of the other vehicle after it had made the turn.