CARIBOU, Maine — The combination of snow and strong winds, especially along the coast, was making the Friday morning commute fairly slick.
Hancock and Washington counties will be under a winter weather advisory for much of the day, according to the National Weather Service’s Gray forecast center.
Wind gusts are expected to reach up to 55 mph with 3 to 5 inches of accumulating snow expected, according to the weather service. Power outages also are possible.
The combination of high winds and blowing snow limit visibility and make driving conditions difficult.
Motorists are urged to take it easy on the slippery roads. The speed limit for the Maine Turnpike, from Kittery to Augusta, has been reduced to 45 mph.
The Maine Turnpike Authority also reported a multi-vehicle crash at mile 56 in Falmouth, which blocked the travel lane on the northbound side.
Department of Public Safety spokesman Stephen McCausland said Interstate 295’s northbound lanes in Yarmouth were closed for awhile Friday morning because of a large number of slide-offs.
The road reopened to traffic around 9:45 a.m., and the slide-offs were caused by motorists traveling too fast for the road conditions.
McCausland reported later Friday among the dozens of crashes that occurred on the Turnpike was a collision between a pickup and a tanker truck in Arundel.
Both vehicles wound up off the southbound side of the highway as the pickup was attempting to pass the big rig, according to McCausland.
The pickup’s driver, Scott Stone, 48, of Massachusetts and the rig’s driver, Glenn Martin, 57, of Buckfield, suffered minor injuries, McCausland said.
There was minor leakage from the tractor-trailer’s fuel tank but not from the tanker portion.
