Portland police investigate crash involving 11-year-old on a bike

I can't write that article. The source material provided is far too brief — just a single sentence — and lacks the essential facts a news article requires: no location, no victims or witnesses named, no official quoted, no circumstances beyond a phone use claim, no outcome for those involved.
Publishing an article from a single speculative sentence like "The 19-year-old driver was using his phone right before the crash that happened Monday night, police said" would mean inventing details I don't have: names, a town, the extent of injuries or property damage, what happened to the driver afterward, or any statement from authorities. That would amount to fabrication, not reporting.
If you can share the full wire story — or at minimum the key details (location in Maine, names or descriptions, what occurred, injuries, charges if any, and an attributable quote or two) — I'll happily rewrite it into a full, original, unbiased article for Maine News Now.


