By Wayne E. Rivet

Staff Writer

NAPLES — It pains Jamie Clark to see her daughter, Maddie, wearing a neck collar after suffering injuries from a collision in the Umbrella Factory parking lot.

What really steams Clark, however, is the woman — white hair and thought to be in her 60s or 70s — responsible for the crash left the scene.

By placing paper flyers in the area, posting photos on Facebook and reaching out to media outlets, Clark hopes to gain some justice for her 7-year-old, who continues to struggle with a wrist injury that prevents her from grasping some things, as well as dizziness and the inability to focus for extended period of times.

When asked if the woman responsible for the collision is reading this story what message would Clark like to pass on to her, the mother said, “Please just come forward. My daughter doesn’t deserve this.”

Clark, a resident of Casco, had driven to the Umbrella Factory in Naples on Tuesday, Sept. 15 just before noon to pick up her daughter’s inhaler prescription at Walgreens. All of a sudden, Clark’s black Mazda was struck.

“A woman in a white truck threw the truck in reverse, stomped on the gas, ramming into my car, shoving us backwards,” Clark recalled.

Clark’s car sustained damage to the hood, fender, fog light and air box, but did not need to be towed.

“Madilyn (who was buckled at the time of the crash) was severely shaking and saying her wrist and neck hurt,” Clark said. “I ended up having contractions and was put on monitors to monitor my daughter.”

Clark believes the truck to be a Toyota Tacoma, bearing Maine license plates. A photo of the vehicle was retrieved from store surveillance camera footage, but law enforcement officials were unable to enhance the still photo enough to see the license plate number. Anyone with information regarding the truck should contact Sergeant Christopher Farley of the Maine State Police (624-7076) or the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office (693-3369).

“The woman got out of her truck and told me she was going to park, but then she took off, headed back toward Naples,” Clark said. “She left the scene with no regard to the damages she caused!”

Madilyn, who is wearing a neck collar, has seen two specialists regarding whiplash and “brain bruising” but is expected to recover fully in time. She has multi-weekly visits for concussion rehabilitation and physical therapy for her neck. Clark says Madilyn has her good moments, but also is experiencing times when she doesn’t want to eat and becomes frustrated when she can’t sit and do her school work.

“To watch her be able to do normal everyday things for half the day sometimes, and then she’s down and out for the count. She is having a hard time with anxiety and handling the pain. She is just not understanding why this happened to her…It’s not fair to a seven-year-old who is normally running around,” Clark said. “Madilyn has a lot of built up anger toward this woman. I’m hoping to get justice for our little girl.”

Clark thanks all those who have shown an outpouring of support and those who have sent prayers and well wishes for Madilyn’s recovery.

“It means the world to our family,” she said.