MEXICO — Black ice and light snow confounded many drivers hitting the roads in Oxford County on Black Friday in search of deals at stores.
An Oxford County dispatcher in Paris said numerous minor accidents occurred throughout the county, but none was serious.
“The roads were very bad this morning, but there was a lot of traffic,” Rumford acting Cpl. Lawrence Winson said. “The weather may have slowed them down a bit, but there was still a ton of people on the road.”
By mid-afternoon, Winson said he had responded to a few weather-related minor accidents.
In neighboring Mexico, a Peru woman lost control of her 2000 Subaru Outback while descending Highland Terrace near Upper Hill Road at about 2:15 p.m. Mexico police Sgt. Roy Hodsdon said driver Rebecca Smith, 38, suffered minor scrapes when the car landed on its roof in a drainage ditch.
Her 9-year-old daughter and 6-year-old son suffered minor cuts from glass blown out of the windows when they crawled out onto the snow- and ice-covered shoulder, Hodsdon said.
He said Smith told him she was distracted by a couple of hunters walking on the other side of the road, and then blinded by the sun. The car veered into the soft shoulder, spun 180 degrees on slush and went off the road before flipping upside-down into the ditch, Hodsdon said. Speed was not a factor.
Smith and her children were wearing seat belts, which Hodsdon said prevented more serious injuries. They were treated on-scene by Med-Care Ambulance while Mexico firefighters limited traffic to one lane and sopped up vehicle fluids.
“There’s been a lot of these today, but more down in the Fryeburg area, and in Sumner, Brownfield and Denmark,” Hodsdon said.
By 5 p.m., the Oxford County Regional Communication Center had received about 25 accident calls from drivers who slid off the roads, Supervisor Steve Cordwell said.
On Route 117 in Denmark at about 1:30 p.m., Rebekah Mack of Norway slid into a utility pole near the Denmark Public Library, Deputy Chris Davis of the Oxford County Sheriff’s Office said. She and her 2-year-old son were treated for minor injuries at Bridgton Hospital.
Cordwell called the number of accidents “typical of the first storms of the year.” Drivers who haven’t adjusted to slippery roads, coupled with the lack of snowbanks on the shoulders, means more serious crashes, including a lot of rollovers.
treaves@sunjournal.com
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- Two Mexico firefighters, right, place hazardous material pads in a drainage ditch beside Highland Terrace to soak up leaking fluids from this 2000 Subaru Outback on Friday afternoon.
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- A Peru woman and her two young children suffered minor abrasions and cuts on Friday afternoon when police say she lost control of her 2000 Subaru Outback on the icy shoulder of Highland Terrace while descending a hill. The car spun on the roadway and rolled into a drainage ditch.
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