DIXFIELD – High winds Saturday toppled an oak tree into two pickup trucks driving past it on Route 2 near the police station.

One driver, David Leclerc, 36, of Topsham, suffered minor injuries. He was taken to Rumford Hospital by Med-Care Ambulance, treated and released, said investigating officer Mark Dow.

“High winds caused an oak tree alongside the river to split near its base, and the half nearer the road fell on the telephone lines,” Dow said.

“The top of the tree snapped off near the phone lines and fell on the windshields of both trucks simultaneously.”

Neither Hugh Daley, 62, a longtime Dixfield selectman who chose not to seek re-election this month, nor his mother-in-law were injured in the bizarre 11:55 a.m. incident.

Dow said the heavier section of the tree, which “got every area of Leclerc’s 2002 Dodge Dakota truck except the undercarriage,” was about 10 feet long and between six and eight inches in diameter.

“It took out his windshield, bounced over the roof and landed in the back of the truck. If he had had a passenger, the injuries would have been much worse,” he added.

Daley’s windshield was shattered.

“The weird part of this is that both trucks were going in the opposite direction when the tree hit them both in the windshields at the same time. You couldn’t have choreographed that,” Dow said.

Police and Dixfield firefighters shut down the eastbound lane of Route 2 for eight hours after the accident until Verizon could arrive to remove the tree from wires and right the utility pole – which had leaned over the road.

Daley’s 1994 truck sustained an estimated $5,000 in damage. Damage to Leclerc’s totaled truck, which was towed by M/T Pockets of Dixfield, was estimated at $10,000.

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