POLAND – Slick roads were blamed for an afternoon crash that sent a tractor-trailer skidding and flipping Thursday on Route 26.

No one was hurt in the 4 p.m. rollover, but the overturned truck caused a snarl on one of Poland’s busiest roads as police and emergency crews responded.

For five hours, police directed one vehicle at a time around the crash site after the rig, fully loaded with paper, flipped onto its side. It took five tow trucks and a bucket loader to right the tractor-trailer, and traffic remained stalled into Thursday night.

“It’s a mess,” Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Deputy Tom Slivinski said.

Sheriff’s Deputy Dennis Sampson said the driver of the truck, 41-year-old Sylvan Buchesne of Quebec, lost control of the rig when he tried using the brakes on the slippery road.

The truck, carrying 45,000 pounds of cardboard, rolled onto its side. Buchesne was not hurt, but the crash kept police, emergency crews and tow truck drivers busy at the scene until 9:30 p.m.

A flurry of crashes were reported around the region after snow began falling across the area in the middle of the afternoon. Heavy snow and relatively warm temperatures combined for sticky and slick road conditions leading up to the evening commute.

Then, after dark, it all began to freeze.

Police around the state moved from crash to crash as cars and trucks slid off roads, onto lawns and into each other. In Lewiston, police responded to 17 reported wrecks between 1 and 10 p.m.

“It’s pretty slippery out there,” Lewiston police Lt. James Minkowsky said. “We’re taking extra precautions on the roads.”

For starters, some Lewiston police officers parked their cruisers and doubled up in SUVs during the worst of the storm.

“We’ve had our share of accidents, but they’ve all been pretty minor,” Minkowsky said. “People seem to be driving carefully, for the most part.”

Snow began to taper off at about 8 p.m.

Weather forecasters weren’t expecting much at all, just a dusting before sun returns today.

On Saturday, meteorologists say a new storm may move into the area, dumping snow, sleet and freezing rain on the state.