By Kathy McCarty
Staff Writer
PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Saturday’s ice storm caused dozens of accidents and forced many municipalities to dig deep into sand and salt reserves in a futile attempt to keep roads passable, beginning early Saturday afternoon and continuing through early Sunday. An accident around 3:30 p.m. left Washburn first responders and a Crown Ambulance crew unable to access an accident on Gardner Creek Road due to poor road conditions.
“The Washburn Fire Department responded to a report of a motor vehicle accident with injuries on Gardner Creek Road. Due to weather conditions, neither Crown nor WFD were able to reach the scene. A single patient was able to be transported from the scene to awaiting EMS personnel,” said Chief Troy Heald, of the WFD, in a Facebook post.
Heald said as if that wasn’t bad enough, a plow ran into trouble on the way to help.
“To make things worse, Washburn Highway Department responded to assist with sanding the road at the scene and subsequently left the road as well,” said Heald.
Heald said roads were not safe for the remainder of the day and that state highway crews were “doing their best to keep main roads open” and that “secondary roads were not clear.” He urged everyone to “stay safe, stay home.”
The Presque Isle Police Department had to call in additional help to cover the higher-than-normal volume of accidents Saturday evening.
“Traffic conditions were horrible out there. We had to call our midnight shift in early to help with accident calls,” posted Chief Matt Irwin on the department’s Facebook page. Like Heald, Irwin urged everyone to “stay off the roads if at all possible.”
At least 12 accident calls came in to the PIPD, in some cases involving multiple vehicles off the road in the same vicinity.
Some area roads were shut down due to accidents and/or the weather.
“We asked motorists to avoid Route 167 (the Presque Isle Road). We had a vehicle lose control and hit another vehicle, which caused the road to be blocked while emergency personnel cleared the scene. One person was transported to the hospital for non-life-threatening injuries. We had several vehicles off the road in other areas as well — probably at least a dozen weather-related incidents, including an MDOT plow that went off Route 1A,” said Chief Bill Campbell, of the Fort Fairfield Police Department.
Campbell said even the police had issues.
“Everywhere it was nothing but ice — streets, parking lots, driveways. Sgt. Shawn Newell pulled the cruiser out of the garage here at the station, put it in park and the next thing he knew it slid backwards on the ice,” said Campbell.
“In my 19 years as a police officer, I can honestly say, I don’t think I’ve ever experienced a night like tonight (Saturday). It’s the worst road conditions I’ve ever seen,” wrote Newell on Facebook. Newell noted that it was “just plain chaos.”
Newell thanked the Fort Fairfield Public Works crew and the Fort Fairfield Fire Department for their help throughout the evening.
“It was a concerted effort by many that helped make my night a lot easier. So when you see your public works crew or members of the fire department, give them a ‘thank you.’ They all worked very, very hard to keep a lot of people safe,” stated Newell.
At least one town went so far as to declare several roads closed to traffic, due to ice.
“We had to shut down everything east of Route 1A, including the Fuller Road and down to River de Chute. We had two of our trucks off the road. You know it’s bad when a 10-wheel vehicle, with chains on all 10 wheels, can’t stay on the road,” said Easton Town Manger Jim Gardner.
Gardner said all the town’s highway department trucks are equipped with chains but they served little purpose given the icy road conditions.
“We put sand down and the rain would wash it off. What didn’t wash off quickly became caked in ice,” said Gardner, noting it was “a tough decision to close the roads, but we just couldn’t treat the roads fast enough.”
“As the day progressed, it just kept getting worse,” said the town manager, adding “we’re not out of the woods yet; Tuesday’s rain will eventually freeze as temperatures drop. It’s still winter for a bit longer.”
Gardner said road crews, who’d been out for hours Saturday, were back at it early Sunday.
“We went back out around 3 or 4 a.m. on Sunday — laid down straight salt. That’s the only way to get it down,” said Gardner.
He said the storm won’t have quite the same economic impact on Easton as some other communities, due to the difference in budget years.
“What helps us is our budget year’s almost over — that, and the fact public works is the only department the state allows to go over budget, because you can’t predict things like Saturday’s ice storm,” said Gardner.
