One dead, two treated and released after Saco turnpike crash

The driver who died was Felix Melo, 36, of Manchester, New Hampshire. Maine State Police said their preliminary investigation found that his Hyundai Santa Fe rear-ended a Ford Explorer traveling in the center lane of northbound Interstate 95. Melo was pronounced dead at the scene, according to police spokesperson Aaron Turcotte’s account reported by the Bangor Daily News.⁠2

The collision happened at about 4:45 a.m. near mile marker 39 in Saco. Yara Schneider, 42, of Lowell, Massachusetts, was driving the Ford. Her passenger was Ana Dos Santos Augusto, 24, also of Lowell. Both women received treatment at the crash scene and were released there. The available reports do not identify their injuries or describe further medical care.⁠2⁠3

The preliminary account places the Ford on the interstate after the collision and the Hyundai in the woods beside it. The Portland Press Herald’s November 14 report quotes the Maine State Police news release directly:⁠4

That sequence is also reported by WABI, the Bangor Daily News and WMTW. It distinguishes the initial rear-end impact from the vehicles’ subsequent movements: Schneider’s Ford spun and stopped on the road; Melo’s Hyundai left the highway and rolled onto its side in a wooded area. These remain preliminary police findings, not a completed reconstruction.⁠1⁠2⁠3

There is a consequential inconsistency in local coverage. WGME’s November 14 account reverses those movements, saying Melo’s vehicle stopped on the roadway and Schneider’s entered the woods and rolled. That conflicts with the police-release wording quoted by the Press Herald that day, as well as the sequence carried by the other detailed reports. The quoted release supports the account used here.⁠5⁠4

A separate discrepancy concerns Melo’s age. NEWS CENTER Maine describes the deceased New Hampshire driver as 26, while the Bangor Daily News, WABI, WMTW and the Press Herald identify Melo as 36. No official age correction is established in the available reporting. The detailed, named accounts support identifying him as 36, while leaving that published inconsistency unresolved.⁠8⁠2⁠1⁠3⁠4

Police initially warned that their work could require lane closures. A subsequent police update shortly before 9 a.m. Saturday said all lanes were open, WMTW reported. That later update supersedes the earlier warning about possible closures; it does not establish how long any particular lane was closed.⁠3

The reopening is a Saturday-morning milestone, not a live traffic reading for Sunday. Nor does it mean investigators had finished their work. A Maine State Police Reconstruction Team attended the scene and is assisting with the investigation, according to WMTW and the Bangor Daily News.⁠3⁠2

The reporting now supplies substantially more than the initial notice of a fatal crash: names, vehicle models, the approximate time, the lane in which the Ford was traveling and the police-described sequence after impact. What it does not supply is a final explanation for why Melo’s Hyundai struck the SUV ahead.⁠2⁠3

That distinction matters. A finding that one vehicle rear-ended another describes the collision; it does not, by itself, settle its cause or establish criminal responsibility. The highway reopened that morning. The unanswered question—why this collision happened—remains part of the investigation, not a conclusion readers should fill in for themselves.