Vehicles went sliding off of Oxford County roads at a brisk clip Tuesday night as freezing rain and glare ice conspired to make for dangerous driving.

“I wouldn’t dare guess how many accident calls we’ve had in the last four hours,” Oxford County Sheriff Wayne Gallant said at 8:30 p.m., shortly after responding to an accident scene on Route 17 in Roxbury. At one point, he said, he had nine calls on his computer screen at the same time.

An Oxford County dispatcher said that at least 15 calls came in during a “nightmarish” two-hour span, compared to just a few during an entire normal work shift.

“The roads were extremely treacherous,” Gallant said. “It was all glare ice.”

Routes 2 and 26 in the Bethel area and Route 302 in Fryeburg saw the most accidents, the dispatcher said. State Police and the Oxford County Sheriff’s Office also responded to accidents in West Paris, Newry, Hanover, and Peru Tuesday night, State Police trooper Kyle Tilsley said.

One vehicle slid off of Route 2 in Newry, slamming into a utility pole and snapping it in half, Tilsley said. The driver was not injured, he said.

Gallant watched one Department of Transportation sand truck slide off the road twice while driving behind it Tuesday evening, he said. “He had to sand himself back on.”

Gallant said he couldn’t recall another time when roads were so slick and dangerous.

Although cars were slipping and sliding all over, and off, the roads, Gallant said he did not know of any major injuries. One man was taken to a hospital after the accident on Route 17 that Gallant responded to, but his injuries were not considered serious, he said. However, “there was a lot of property damage,” Gallant said.

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