Portland

Man Dead After Car Smashes Through Maine Baseball Field, Playground

NBC Universal, Inc.

A car careened into baseball stands, then a playground, in Portland, Maine, leaving one man dead.

An erratic driver, allegedly overdosing on drugs, careened through the stands at a baseball field in Portland, Maine, Sunday before flying into a playground. The chaos left a man dead, authorities said.

The driver is facing charges in the crash that witnesses said laid a disturbing path of destruction, knocking baseball bleachers dozens of feet away.

"I heard a rumble and my first thought was, was there a tornado coming? And then I saw this black car just come screaming through," said a woman from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, who watched the scene unfold Sunday night.

The car destroyed playground equipment, flung an elderly man into the air, then mangled stands at the baseball field and trapped him in them so tightly he had to be sawed out.

That man died Monday.

The driver, 29-year-old Jonathan Burt of Lisbon, Maine, is facing a manslaughter charge.

Burt was apprehended thanks to an off-duty New Hampshire state trooper and a woman who yelled at spectators to look out for the car. A number of people were able to get out of the way when it crashed into the stand.

It wasn't immediately clear if Burt had an attorney who could speak to the charge.

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