50 crashes snarl I-95 after storm Police say DOT crews slow to respond

BANGOR – Snow-covered roads combined with excess speed and driver inattention caused more than 50 accidents Saturday morning on Interstate 95 between Etna and Old Town.

Careless driving and a seemingly slow response from Department of Transportation sanding crews further complicated an already bad traffic situation in the aftermath of a lengthy ice, sleet and snow storm the day before, state police said.

Vehicles started sliding off the road shortly after the sun came up Saturday, according to state police in Orono.

Nursing supervisors at Bangor hospital emergency rooms reported a busy morning as a result, although nobody was seriously injured.

Many vehicles rolled over as state police logged 42 to 48 accidents between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m., including a three-car pileup in Orono that resulted in minor injuries. Bangor police responded to 12 accidents on the Interstate, Old Town handled four accidents and Hampden police handled one crash on Interstate 95 during a post-storm accident melee.

Two sections of the interstate, one between Hampden and Bangor and the other near Old Town, were shut down for short periods after state troopers became concerned about passing motorists going too fast for conditions and failing to stop when signaled to do so while an accident scene was being cleared.

Bill Gormely, Bangor division superintendent for the Maine Department of Transportation, said the speeding traffic was “unbelievable.” He has a two-way radio in his truck and heard long-haul truckers complaining about motorists “doing 70 miles per hour or more” while road signs flashed a 40-mph limit.

Gormely said a dispatcher had called out plowing crews and some had been working since 6:30 a.m., though a full complement of workers was not on the job Saturday morning. In order to prevent extreme worker exhaustion, the DOT supervisor said “we sometimes split the crew in half” during lengthy storms like the one late last week. Gormely said four to six plow trucks were working the interstate in the Bangor area early Saturday and a couple more were called out as the accidents began.

But Maine State Police Trooper Daniel Ryan said it was more than two hours from the time DOT was alerted of bad road conditions Saturday morning before action was taken.

“We started having accidents at 7 a.m. and I think it was about 9:30 a.m. before I saw a DOT foreman out there to check the roads. It was 50 minutes after that before we saw a DOT truck out there,” Ryan said Saturday night.

“We had quite a time getting people out to sand the roads,” Ryan complained.

Gormely said the interstate was being worked on despite appearances. Because of the vast area covered, “road crews could be 10 miles away putting on salt and sand and not be visible to people at a certain point on the state highway.”