BANGOR (AP) – Snow squalls that caught many motorists by surprise may have been a factor in a fatal car-truck accident Thursday morning on Interstate 95 in Bangor and a series of crashes involving at least 25 vehicles about 50 miles down the road in Waterville, state police said.

One person was killed when his pickup truck veered across the median and collided head-on with a tractor-trailer that was hauling rolls of paper in the southbound lane near the Hermon line, said Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Department of Public Safety.

The victim’s name was withheld pending notification of his family. The southbound lanes were closed for a time while crews cleared the wreckage.

The snow shower that reduced visibility and caused slippery road conditions was blamed for the series of multi-vehicle crashes that closed the northbound lanes of the interstate in the Waterville area for nearly four hours.

No serious injuries were reported in those accidents, which involved at least 25 vehicles. Nineteen of them – 11 passenger vehicles and eight trucks – got caught in a pileup on the bridge over Messalonskee Stream and at least six other vehicles crashed in a three-mile stretch of road just south of the major pileup, McCausland said.

Troopers were also busy responding to reports of crashes involving another 20 vehicles along the stretch of the interstate between Orono and Hampden, he said.

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