PORTLAND – Only four hours after a 6:05 a.m. car crash in which he suffered a concussion and broken rib, Gov. John Baldacci was joking on the telephone from Maine Medical Center with staff members who breathed a collective sigh of relief following a morning of riveting high anxiety.

During the day, Baldacci checked in several times with his chief of staff on legislation and eventually overruled doctors who wanted him to spend the night in the hospital. He slipped out of the medical center just after 6 p.m. and soon arrived in an unmarked cruiser at the Blaine House, where he walked inside unassisted.

Doctors confirmed Wednesday night that both Baldacci and his driver, Maine State Police Detective James Trask, suffered concussions and that the governor broke a rib in the crash on Interstate 295 in Bowdoinham, about 20 miles south of Augusta.

Investigators blamed ice for the accident that demolished the SUV in which the governor was riding as he was on his way to Portland, where he was to address a breakfast gathering of the Greater Portland Chambers of Commerce, said Stephen McCausland of the Maine Department of Public Safety.

Trask, 41, was passing another car when he lost control on a patch of ice and struck the car, McCausland said. The SUV then went off the highway and came to rest on its side in a stand of trees. Both men were in the front seat and the vehicle’s air bags deployed. Both were wearing seat belts.

The other car came to rest in the highway median. The driver, Timothy Putnam, 53, of Richmond, was not injured, McCausland said.

During a 10:30 a.m. press conference at Maine Medical Center, where Baldacci and Trask were transported by ambulance, Dr. Brad Cushing said both complained of pain from bruises and injuries they received.

“It’s a good thing he was wearing a seat belt, and he’s lucky from the nature of this type of crash,” Cushing said.

Although Cushing, director of trauma surgery at MMC, maintained Wednesday morning that neither of the men sustained “major injuries” in the crash, other reports indicated that the governor and his bodyguard were “in and out of consciousness” at times before arriving at the hospital.

During the press conference Cushing said the governor “has been awake and alert throughout all of this time and his sense of humor is fully intact.” The doctor also said that a routine computerized axial tomography (CAT) scan of the governor’s head, neck, abdomen and pelvis revealed no injuries.

Later Wednesday, doctors confirmed the concussion and broken rib.

Baldacci compared the crash to a “roller coaster” ride and complained of pain when he arrived at the hospital, Cushing said at the early morning news conference.

“It hurts him to move, and he has to take big, deep breaths,” Cushing said. “But I don’t suspect that we’ll even have to use narcotics or if we do, it will be a very small amount … He’s going to be sore and perhaps even sorer in the next day or so.”

The driver of a pickup truck, Chris Levesque, told Maine Public Radio he didn’t see the collision but saw the SUV spin out of control.

“It went 360 – it had to have done at least four before it went off the road,” Levesque said. “It kind of entered into the woods backwards, and the vehicle flipped onto its side and stayed that way.”

Both Putnam and Levesque dialed 911 on their cell phones. Levesque described the governor as “kind of fading in and out.”

McCausland said the governor’s wife, Karen, and his son, Jack, were transported to Portland by the state police as Baldacci and Trask were en route to Maine Medical Center. Authorities said the governor’s family had to drive past the accident scene on I-295, where the Suburban still remained on its side. The governor was also joined at the hospital by some of his staff members and his brother, Robert Baldacci.

Lee Umphrey, the governor’s communications director, was busy at the State House taking calls from dozens of concerned Mainers, including members of the state’s congressional delegation. A representative of the White House also called the governor’s office, as did Democratic presidential front-runner Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts. The best call, Umphrey said, came from the governor himself shortly after 10 a.m.

“Jane Lincoln, the governor’s chief of staff, and I talked with the governor, and he was in good spirits, grateful that he was OK and grateful that the detective with him had been able to help him,” Umphrey said.

Baldacci has cleared his schedule for the rest of the week while he recuperates from his injuries.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.