On November 3 at approximately 9pm, the Rochester Police were dispatched to a motor vehicle accident on Route 28 near the intersection of Route 58. Arriving officers located a demolished Ford pickup truck in the roadway. At least one witness told police the operator had fled into the woods. With the assistance of a Massachusetts Environmental Police Officer who was passing by, the driver was located in the woods nearby.
The vehicle operator, 40-year-old Michael R. Jefferson of Queen Drive in Wareham was arrested at the scene and transported to Tobey Hospital for medical treatment. Jefferson was ordered held without bail and remains under police guard at the hospital this morning. He will be facing charges for speeding, reckless operation of a motor vehicle, leaving the scene of an accident, operating a vehicle with a revoked registration, operating an uninsured vehicle, operating after license suspension, possessing an open container of alcohol in a vehicle, and operating under the influence of liquor, second offense.
Jefferson’s license was under suspension at the time of the crash as the result of a drunk driving case in Brockton from March of this year. Police located numerous beer cans in the vehicle, some open and some still full.
The accident scene was more than 400 feet long starting when Jefferson’s vehicle veered off the roadway and severed a telephone pole. The vehicle continued after impact, striking a mailbox then severing a second telephone pole before coming to rest in the middle of Route 28. The vehicle Jefferson was operating was totaled in the crash. The section of road where the crash occurred was closed for several hours with motorists being detoured around the crash scene.
Rochester Police Press Release
