A Thanksgiving Day snowstorm made driving a chore Thursday, but police around the state said there were fewer crashes than expected and that most were minor.
On the Maine Turnpike, there were scattered reports of cars and trucks sliding off the road and over embankments.
Across Androscoggin County, crashes and other weather-related mishaps were few in spite of slick roads and unpredictable driving conditions. By 7 p.m., a sheriff’s dispatcher said it had been quiet for the past four hours even after snow had turned into rain.
Nasty weather caused accidents around Oxford and Franklin counties, including four in Paris, said Officer Raymond Paar of the Paris Police Department. Paar said the worst accidents included a rollover on Hebron Road and a vehicle that hit a tree on Paris Hill. Both accidents happened before 6 p.m. and did not cause serious injuries.
In Lewiston and Auburn, there were similar reports of vehicles sliding off roads and minor collisions, most in the morning or early afternoon.
In Auburn, a vehicle driven by Kevin Dubois, 22, of Auburn, slid out of control at struck a Central Maine Power Co. pole on snow-covered Turner Street. Dubois escaped the 11:30 a.m. wreck, but damage to the vehicle he was driving, a 1995 Ford owned by Diane Dubois, was estimated at $3,500.
Snowfall totals ranged from 3 to 6 inches across the southern and western parts of the state. Snow was expected to end by this morning.
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