CANTON – Authorities credited a safety belt with saving the life of a Carthage woman who lost control of her sport utility vehicle Saturday afternoon on a winding stretch of Canton Point Road.

Robin Farrar, 27, suffered non-life-threatening injuries, Maine State Police Trooper Christopher Cookson said at the scene at 641 Canton Point Road, about five miles east of Route 2 in Dixfield.

Farrar, who was taken by Med-Care Ambulance to Rumford Hospital after the 5:10 p.m. accident, was still being treated in the emergency room two hours later. A nursing supervisor said late Saturday evening that Farrar was treated and released.

“It’s a miracle that she’s alive,” Canton fire Lt. Jim Dyment said Saturday afternoon. “Her seat belt, that was the only thing that saved her. We expected to find a fatality when we came.”

Cookson said Farrar was driving east at about 45 mph when her 2001 Subaru Forester dropped over the edge of pavement while rounding a curve and tangled with the soft gravel shoulder.

According to evidence at the scene, she overcorrected while braking and the SUV slid to the center line, then flipped onto its side, going airborne a short distance, police said.

It then slid backward about 75 feet downhill across the opposite lane and into the shoulder before the car’s passenger-side rear corner slammed into a guardrail and post. That prevented the SUV from colliding with a utility pole and proceeding through woods into what’s known locally as “Ludden Gully.”

The impact with the guardrail flipped the crumpled car onto its roof and back into the eastbound lane.

Farrar, who was conscious and alert, crawled out of the wreckage, according to witnesses and an off-duty Med-Care crewman who heard the 911 call for help on a police scanner at his nearby home and rushed to the scene.

“Speed does not appear to be a factor, nor does alcohol. But she was going obviously too fast for the corner. There’s a caution sign before it that says 35 mph going around this corner,” Cookson said. “Safety belts save lives. People can argue that they trap you in a vehicle, but it’s to keep you from being ejected. They’re so important.”

Five Canton firefighters and two ambulances responded, Dyment said. The initial dispatch call said there were multiple people injured and at least one person possibly trapped in the vehicle.

Authorities say Ludden Gully is commonly the scene of traffic accidents.

“We always call it Haz-Mat Gully because it’s where all the tractor-trailers used to roll over,” Dyment said.