RUMFORD — Two women escaped injury on Saturday afternoon when the pickup they were riding in slid off Isthmus Road on black ice and rolled onto its side in a snowbank.
Driver Paula Harting, 53, of Canton, and passenger Patty Nedeau, 56, no town listed, had to be lifted out of the truck by Rumford firefighters.
Rumford officer Dave Hodgson said the accident happened at 3:12 p.m. when the women were heading east from Black Mountain of Maine ski resort.
Harting lost control Near 128 Isthmus Road when the pickup hit a patch of black ice, Hodgson said. The truck slid across the opposite lane and onto the shoulder where it struck a snowbank and rolled onto the passenger side, the officer said.
“When I arrived, the driver was hanging from her seat belt,” he said.
He radioed to incoming responders that the women were not injured, but needed to be extricated. Hodgson also warned them to be careful, saying the road was “a sheet of ice.”
The temperature was 35 degrees at the time, but drizzle turned to freezing rain in the area.
Traffic was halted for about 45 minutes. Hodgson estimated damage to the truck’s passenger door at $2,000.
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