ROCHESTER - A Rochester teenager charged with drunken driving a year ago in a crash that severely injured four passengers in his car has been indicted.
Noah Campbell, 17, of 33 Summer St., has been formally charged with eight counts of aggravated DWI and faces up to 56 years in prison if convicted on all counts, eight years for each count.
Campbell, who was 16 at the time of the crash last Nov. 1, was driving with four other juvenile passengers when he crashed a 2003 Pontiac Grand Am on Flagg Road.
Two of the passengers were injured so severely they were transported by ambulance to Maine Medical Center in Portland when gusty winds prevented any helicopter Medflights.
Police said the crash occurred around 11 p.m. in the area near 134 Flagg Road. They said Campbell was traveling east when he lost control and struck a tree.
Extrication tools were used during the rescue to remove the roof.
The four unnamed juveniles in the car suffered a myriad of serious injuries, from fractured facial bones, ribs and pelvises to a herniated stomach, diaphragmatic rupture, as well as spleen, liver and kidney lacerations.
Police blamed both speed and alcohol in the crash.
Campbell's BAC was listed in court records as ".02 or more." The legal level of BAC in adults is .08, but juveniles, not being of legal age, are prohibited from having any trace of alcohol in their system.
The Strafford County grand jury indictments were handed down Nov. 19 and released today.
An indictment is not an indication of guilt, only that sufficient evidence has been produced to warrant a trial.