enlarge Jack Milton/Staff Photographer

Saco police chase a car up Beach Street on Saturday. The Saco Bay Criterium bicycle race was in progress at the time and had to be stopped while the chase went through. The bicycle race was restarted after the cars passed.

SACO

Bike race gets interrupted as police chase motorist

Police used two spike mats and stopped a bicycle race as they chased a motorist through the city's downtown Saturday afternoon.

Valerie Mainguy, 37, of Mezieres-sur-Seine in northern France, allegedly sped off when an officer tried to pull over her rental car near the intersection of Seaside Avenue and Bayview Road, police said.

Police said another motorist had reported the woman – vacationing from France – for driving erratically. She led officers down Ferry Road, Beach Street and onto Main Street, where she eventually stopped around 2:54 p.m., said Cpl. Daniel Beaulieu.

Beaulieu said Mainguy drove over two spike mats that flattened her car's front tires. He said public safety dispatchers and a police officer got in touch with organizers and halted the Saco Bay Criterium bicycle race as the woman approached the course on Beach Street.

Beaulieu said the race was restarted in about 15 minutes, after police took the woman into custody.

Police said they did not know why the woman fled the traffic stop. Beaulieu said Mainguy was taken to Southern Maine Medical Center in Biddeford for a psychological evaluatione and would be charged with eluding an officer upon her release.

SOUTH PORTLAND

Driver hospitalized after high-speed chase, crash

A short high-speed chase early Saturday morning ended up with the driver going to the hospital, police said.

Police said they received a report of a possible drunken driver in a black pickup truck near the Maine Mall about 1:50 a.m.

About 15 minutes later, South Portland Police Officer Jeff Levesque saw a black pickup that he said was speeding while headed west on Gorham Road. When Levesque tried to get the driver to stop, the vehicle sped off.

Another officer, Kevin Sager, then spotted the truck on Running Hill Road just before the Cummings Road intersection, and clocked it at 82 mph. The officers briefly lost sight of the truck before it crashed into a utility pole near 114 Running Hill Road.

The driver, Keith Bragdon, 45, of Scarborough, was freed from the truck by a fire and rescue squad and taken to Maine Medical Center.

Police said his injuries did not appear to be life-threatening.

Bragdon will be charged with driving while under the influence, operating after suspension, failure to stop and violation of bail conditions, police said.

Woman injured when car hits utility pole, flips over

A woman was hospitalized Saturday after her car hit a utility pole on Sawyer Street and flipped over, police said.

Kathleen Baker, 45, of South Portland was taken to Maine Medical Center after the accident, which was reported around 1 p.m. in front of 595 Sawyer St.

Baker was listed in fair condition at the hospital late Saturday.

AUGUSTA

About half of state students are in consolidated districts

A state official says about half of Maine’s students attend schools in newly consolidated districts.

A school consolidation law, passed in 2007, requires districts to form regional school units to reduce administrative costs and save taxpayers millions of dollars.

The law envisions reducing Maine’s school districts from 290 to about 80.

The state Education Department’s finance director, Jim Rier, told legislators that consolidation plans already approved account for nearly 103,000 students, or 52 percent of the total number of students.

Rier told the Appropriations Committee that the department has approved six reorganization plans and 39 alternative plans.