Just a few inches of snow followed by an afternoon of rain Monday were enough to keep area police departments busy responding to accidents all day, including a fatality near Bangor and one injury in Auburn.

The weather system dropped 3.5 inches of snow on Lewiston before turning to a depressing drizzle in the early afternoon, National Weather Service meteorologist Bob Marine said. The wintry mix contributed to accidents across the state.

“That was a very greasy, wet, heavy snow. That made roads slick pretty quick,” Marine said. “The good news was we didn’t have the freezing rain” after the snow ended, he said. “That would have been a mess.”

A young woman was killed on Route 95 in Etna when her vehicle crashed into a service vehicle at about 10:45 a.m. Monday, Maine Department of Public Safety Spokesman Steve McCausland reported Monday afternoon. The service vehicle, owned by Discount Towing of Carmel, was parked on the side of the highway while its driver, Nicholas Ward, helped to repair a broken-down tractor-trailer, McCausland said. Neither driver saw the crash, but heard the impact, he said. The woman, who is not from Maine and whose name was not released Monday, died instantly, according to McCausland.

Auburn police responded to five accidents Monday, four of them weather-related, said Lt. Anthony Harrington. The worst of the accidents occurred on East Hardscrabble Road at about 4:30 p.m. when a car driven by Whitney Crothers, 44, of Falmouth was unable to stop in slush and rear-ended a pickup truck that had stopped for a plow. Crothers complained of head and neck pain and was evaluated on the scene by United Ambulance Service, but was not taken to the hospital, Harrington said. The pickup’s driver, Todd Monier, also 44, of Auburn, was not injured.

The other accidents in Auburn on Monday were minor and did not cause injury, Harrington said.

A series of stuck tractor-trailers also tied up the Auburn department Monday, Harrington said. Over the course of the day, trucks found themselves in trouble at the Auburn rotary; at the intersection on Minot Avenue and Poland Road; on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Bridge; and on Mill Street.

On top of accidents and stranded big rigs, Auburn police were kept busy enforcing the noon to midnight parking ban, Harrington said.

Lewiston police were just as busy Monday, Lt. Mark Watson said, responding to 11 accidents in 12 hours. Most were fender-benders resulting in minor damage and no injuries, he said.  A three-car crash on Webber Avenue required police to call United Ambulance Service for a minor injury, Watson said.

“Some storms are really slippery, and others aren’t,” Watson said. On Monday, “it was more traction issues than anything else.”

Monday’s storm brought the year-to-date snow total for the National Weather Service’s Gray observation station to 71.8 inches, just above the 30-year average of about 70 inches, meteorologist Marine said. Portland received 27 inches of snow in February, more than double the average 12.9 inch February snowfall, weather service meteorologist Margaret Curtis said.

In a welcome development to the snow-weary, current March forecasts call for the slow onset of spring, Marine said. “Looking down the road, it warms up and there are chances of rain,” rather than snow, he said. “Typical for March, there will be short bursts of cold air, but they won’t last long.”

T.J. Wing of Lewiston walks down Sabattus Street in Lewiston on Monday on his way to his next shoveling job.