MEXICO – Wednesday’s snowstorm confounded drivers from one end of Oxford County to the other, dispatchers said.

An Oxford County dispatcher, who declined to be identified, said roads were just awful, but accidents were limited mostly to slides that began when snow started falling, just after 6 a.m. The county’s first accident happened at 6:44 a.m., and crashes continued to pile up into the night as more snow fell.

Bethel Patrolman T. J. Reese said neither Travis Brooks, 21, nor his passenger, Justine Carver, 20, both of Bethel, were injured when Brooks lost control of their GMC Jimmy on slippery Route 5 and it rolled over. The SUV sustained an estimated $2,500 in damage. The officer wasn’t sure if Brooks had it in four-wheel-drive.

“If there’s snow on the ground, I’m putting it in four-wheel-drive,” Reese said of his personal vehicle.

One man who may have wished he’d put a borrowed 1986 Toyota pickup in four-wheel-drive, was Joseph Salatka Jr., 46, of Rumford. He wasn’t injured.

He lost control of the truck on sandy slush on Route 120 in Mexico just after 1 p.m. The truck narrowly missed a utility pole and guy wire then dropped over a rocky embankment and struck a tree that prevented it from sliding into Swift River.

“It blew my mind,” he said. “I saw the pole coming up, I put my foot on the brake and I started to slide sideways. I think I was going 15 to 20 mph, but I was afraid it would rollover or it would end up standing on its nose, but by the time I got down to the water, I was hoping I’d hit the big rocks first.”

“It was so slow of a slide down there that the only thing to wait for was sliding through the trees, but my wheel caught one,” he said.

Investigating Patrolman Dustin Broughton said he wouldn’t know if the truck was damaged until it was hauled back to the road.

At 5:45 p.m., a snowmobile rider crashed into Webb River off Bradley Street in Dixfield, but the investigating Dixfield reserve officer would not release information about the accident, saying it would have to come from a superior who couldn’t be contacted.

A dispatcher in Franklin County said police were busy with accidents north of New Vineyard and north of Strong.

A morning crash in Sumner killed a high school student and injured several younger school students when the girl’s SUV struck a SAD 39.