OXFORD – Two drivers suffered minor injuries when their vehicles collided head-on on the icy King Street bridge over the Little Androscoggin River on Tuesday morning, police said.

“Both cars crashed head on. One of the cars caught on fire,” police officer Eric Quatrano said.

The cars were going in opposite directions on the bridge when Joanne Jacobs, 47, of Otisfield lost control of her Chevrolet Trailblazer on a patch of ice and it slammed into a Chrysler sedan driven by Christopher Parise, 23, of Oxford, police said.

“She lost control, he tried to slow down and he started sliding and they crashed in the middle of bridge,” Quatrano said.

The impact of the crash sent the cars spinning and caused the engine compartment of the Parise car to burst into flames just after he got out of the vehicle.

Parise suffered cuts on his face and a bruise but refused transport to the hospital. Jacobs also received minor cuts on her arm and was treated at the scene.

Police said they are not sure what caused the car to burst into flames.

Both police and fire personnel responded to the 9:19 a.m. accident, along with the rescue squad. The fire was extinguished quickly, Quatrano said.

Traffic was rerouted for about 30 minutes.

Norway police reported no weather-related accidents, but Oxford County sheriff’s deputies were kept busy Monday responding to 13 weather-related incidents by noon, Chief Deputy Dane Tripp said.

“It’s the same every year,” Tripp said. “It’s that first kind of cool and slippery weather and you’ve just got to use prudence when you are driving in that first weather of the year.”

He also said an Oxford County Sheriff’s cruiser was struck by a deer which ran into the road in Paris on Monday. The officer was not injured but the cruiser sustained an estimated $2,000 damage.

Tripp said the accidents were scattered around the region on major and minor roads.

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