WOODSTOCK – Six people escaped serious injury Sunday in a head-on collision that resulted in both vehicles being destroyed by fire.

The accident occurred about 4:30 p.m. on Route 26 near Rocky Road. A 2000 Ford Explorer driven by Jeffrey Dansereau, 45, of Stow, Mass., went out of control while traveling south. Dansereau’s wife Susan, 44, and sons Oliver, 14, and Spencer, 11, were in the vehicle.

Deputy George Cayer of the Oxford County Sheriff’s Office said the accident occurred in “near-whiteout conditions” before the roads had been sanded. He said Dansereau overcorrected after the vehicle hit slush on the right side of the road and collided head-on with a Jeep driven north by Mary Gage, 49, of Bryant Pond. Suzannah Blood, 10, of Bryant Pond, was a passenger in the Jeep.

Both vehicles stopped on the side of the road, and the occupants were able to get out. Soon after, one of the vehicles caught fire, and the blaze spread to include both vehicles. Both were destroyed.

Cayer said Gage suffered pain in her leg, while Susan Dansereau had an arm injury and one of the Dansereau boys sustained a shoulder injury. They were taken to Stephens Memorial Hospital in Norway, where word on their condition was not immediately available Monday.

Besides the Sheriff’s Office, the accident brought responders from the Woodstock, Greenwood and Bethel fire departments, as well as Tri-Town Rescue and Bethel Rescue. Cayer said the road was shut down for more than an hour.

“It was a major traffic jam, all that Sunday River traffic leaving,” he said.

The Dansereaus were returning to Massachusetts from the ski resort, Cayer said.


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