By Terry Karkos,Staff Writer

DIXFIELD – A furious pelting of sleet on Monday afternoon was a factor in numerous accidents in Franklin and Oxford counties, dispatchers said.

Dixfield police handled two rollovers within minutes of each other, one of which sent two people to the hospital.

A Dixfield teenager suffered a head injury about 3:05 p.m. when the 1996 Chevrolet Cavalier she was in slid off Canton Point Road, severed a utility pole and landed on its roof, Dixfield Patrolman Eric Bernier said.

Sarah Dakin, 13, was taken to Rumford Hospital by Med-Care Ambulance. A nursing supervisor there said she was still being evaluated by 5:45 p.m. Later in the evening, a nursing supervisor said she had no information on Dakin.

Another passenger, Kayla Robins, 14, of Carthage, who Bernier said was taken to the hospital by her mother, was treated at the hospital and released, the supervisor said.

The driver, Heather J. Dakin, 24, of Warren, was reportedly not injured.

Bernier said the southbound Chevrolet slid sideways after rounding a corner, and slammed into the pole on the driver’s side. The car partially wrapped around the pole until the wood shattered. The car then spun around in the air and flipped, landing on its roof.

“I was watching TV and heard a kathunk, and said, Uh oh, somebody hit the pole again,’ and then the power went out,” said Roy Hodsdon of 924 Canton Point Road.

“Three people were in the car, but they were out by the time I got here. They said they don’t know how they got out, but I think one got thrown out,” he said of Dakin.

“She had a cut on her head, and she was bleeding from the side. The girl driving the car had her leg banged up,” Hodsdon added.

Bernier said the disoriented occupants told him that no one was ejected, but rather, that they crawled out through the shattered rear window.

Christmas presents and cards littered the snow between the crushed car and severed pole.

“This was the third time since we’ve been here that that pole has been taken out,” Hodsdon said.

His wife, Marion Hodsdon, said, “This corner is terrible. Cars have jumped over our stone wall, gone into the woods and wiped out our mailbox a couple of times.”

“I was listening to the scanner, and the wrecks were coming fast and furious, oh dear. It was a good time for people to stay home,” she added.

The car, which was totaled, was righted by M/T Pockets owner Dave Hodgson of Dixfield, who arrived about 30 minutes after righting another vehicle and hauling it back to Route 2 in Dixfield.

In that accident, which happened at 2:45 p.m., a westbound 2002 Chevrolet Trailblazer slid across the opposite lane and into snow off the road.

The sport-utility vehicle, driven by Gerald Paine, 78, of Madison, narrowly missed a utility pole, then flipped onto its roof and slid several feet through standing water before stopping on a mound of snow, Dixfield Officer Rusty Daley said.

Passers-by extricated Paine, who did not appear to be injured. The SUV was totaled, Daley said.

Dixfield firefighters were spread thin, directing traffic and mopping up fluids and debris at the two rollovers, and handling a third accident, a slide-off on S-turns on Route 2 just west of the Paine wreck.

Hodgson, who owns a garage and towing service, said his day started about 4 a.m. when he was called to retrieve an empty logging tractor-trailer truck that slid on black ice off East B Hill Road in Andover. The big rig traveled down an embankment and crashed into trees, he said.

The Oxford County Sheriff’s deputy who investigated the accident was not available for comment by Monday afternoon.