BANGOR, Maine — More than a dozens drivers on Interstate 95 slid off the roadway Saturday morning, a Maine State Police dispatcher said, but no injuries were reported.
Warm air early in the day caused the snow to turn into sleet and freezing rain, hampering driving conditions, meteorologist Mark Bloomer from the National Weather Service in Caribou said shortly after noon.
“There was some ice deposited down on the roads earlier, making for hazardous roads,” Bloomer said.
“There is about 2½ inches so far in Bangor and vicinities,” he said. “Right now, we’re expecting interior Down East, away from the coast, to get 6 to 8 inches. Across the central highlands, we expect 4 to 8 inches. In the far north they’ll be getting a little light snow — 2 inches at best.”
The state police dispatcher in Augusta said they mostly have been dealing with slide-offs.
“We’ve had a lot of them,” she said, listing about 10 as of 1 p.m.
In Bangor, “we’ve had a couple slide-offs where we’ve had a trooper stand by while the wrecker pulls the vehicles back onto the roads,” the state police dispatcher said.
Bangor police Lt. Steve Hunt said only one crash occurred Saturday morning.
“It was a fender bender,” the lieutenant said.
While there may have been only one crash in the Queen City, Mike Murphy, a tow truck driver for Union Street Towing, said it has been nonstop all Saturday morning.
“It’s quite busy,” Murphy said.