FREEPORT, Maine — Whiteout conditions during the worst of Tuesday’s snowstorm prompted the Maine Department of Transportation to pull plow trucks from Interstate 295 for about an hour, leaving at least six cars “stranded” on the highway’s traveling lanes between Freeport and Bowdoinham.
At least two state plow trucks slid off the roadway, prompting the Department of Transportation to tell all plow drivers in the area to stop — in some cases on the side of the highway — for about an hour, although MDOT spokesman Ted Talbot said Wednesday that no one was hurt — “except their pride.”
With cars “sitting on 295” due to the conditions, plows came to a halt — sometimes stopping in place on the highway, between about 6 p.m. and 7 p.m., when “visibility was absolutely zero,” Talbot said.
Maine State Police troopers checked on the occupants of the cars, which were eventually pulled out of snowdrifts by wreckers, according to Steve McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety.
“When you have the snow coming on the windshield like that and you just can’t see anything, for the safety of cars and our plows, [the plows] were pulled,” Talbot said. “Then visibility started to improve and everyone was able to get moving.”
Brunswick Police Cmdr. Thomas Garrepy said Wednesday that his officers did not respond to any calls on the highway during the evening.
Talbot said crews would be out all day Wednesday and overnight again working to remove snow.