Lincoln Man who Drove off 35-foot Cliff Pleads Guilty to Driving Drunk in Acadia National Park
by Marie Weidmayer/Bangor Daily News
BANGOR—A man who drunkenly drove off a cliff in Acadia National Park pleaded guilty and was sentenced Thursday morning.
Eric Amos Jipson III of Lincoln pleaded guilty to operating under the influence of alcohol in U.S. District Court in Bangor. A charge of operating under the influence of alcohol .08 or above was dismissed.
Jipson was sentenced to six months of probation, according to court records.
He was driving around 8:40 p.m., June 27, in Acadia National Park near Sand Beach when he crashed through cones and down a 35-foot cliff, court records said.
A lifted black truck was driving more than 50 mph around 8:37 p.m. Thursday near Sand Beach when a 911 report came in that the truck crashed through cones. Park rangers responded to the area, according to an affidavit filed in federal court. Another 911 call reported the same truck went off the Park Loop Road just north of the Blackwoods Campground.
Jipson told the ranger he was driving and “all of the sudden a corner came up” and he “went straight through it,” according to the affidavit. The crash was about a half-mile past a curve on Otter Creek Causeway. It was dark and raining at the time of the crash.
Two park rangers hiked down the cliff where they identified Jipson as the driver, and found his speech was slow and slurred with “regular cursing.”
Jipson was not physically injured.
This story appears through a media partnership with the Bangor Daily News.
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