Slippery, slushy roads made for difficult and in some cases dangerous travel for motorists Friday afternoon in Piscataquis and Penobscot counties.

Dozens of accidents were reported in the region where diving temperatures changed rain to snow and made roads slick. Many accidents were simply motor vehicles sliding off roads, although in a few cases they involved collisions with other vehicles and sent some to the hospital.

Reports of accidents began coming into the Penobscot Regional Communications Center about 2:30 p.m., said Liz Tilley, a dispatch supervisor.

The calls, sometimes coming in simultaneously, kept dispatchers, law enforcement and emergency response personnel, as well as tow truck operators, busy.

Butch Foss, owner of Union Street Citgo in Bangor, said his company fielded eight or nine tow trucks to keep up with the calls and were handling “all we possibly could” Friday afternoon. He estimated that the towing company received 30 calls in a three-hour period beginning about 2:30 p.m., when weather conditions got cooler fast.

“It was a quick weather change so there were more accidents than usual,” Foss said.

In Piscataquis County, a Milo girl and a Stetson man were injured Friday afternoon when two vehicles collided on Route 11 in Orneville.

Alexis Peters, 6, and Joseph Brasslett, 24, were taken to Mayo Regional Hospital in Dover-Foxcroft after the 4 p.m. accident. Peters was expected to be released from the hospital Friday evening, and Brasslett was being evaluated in the emergency room, according to Tom Lizotte, the hospital’s director of marketing and development.

Peters was a passenger in a 1999 Oldsmobile driven by Edmund Smith, 31, according to Investigator Guy Dow of the Piscataquis County Sheriff’s Department. Dow said Smith lost control of his southbound vehicle on the icy road and the vehicle spun around and struck Brasslett’s northbound pickup truck. It was unknown whether Brasslett was wearing a seat belt at the time of the accident, Dow said.

Neither Smith nor his other passengers, Sarah Smith, 22, Destiny Peters, 4, and Cameron Smith, 11/2, were injured, according to Dow. All of the occupants in the Smith vehicle were wearing seat belts or were restrained in car safety seats, he said.

Both vehicles were demolished, Dow said.

In Hermon in Penobscot County, a motorist lost control of an SUV in slushy road conditions and drove head-on into another vehicle, sending two people to the hospital.

Katie McDonald, 18, of Bangor told a Penobscot County sheriff’s deputy that she was on Billings Road headed toward Union Street when a vehicle in front of her stopped abruptly. She turned to the right to avoid the vehicle but said she lost control of the SUV in the slush and swerved to the left into the oncoming lane. She struck another vehicle head-on, reported Deputy James Kennedy of the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Department.

Betty Baker, 76, of Hermon was the driver of the other vehicle. She and grandson Michael Baker, 7, were still being evaluated Friday night at Eastern Maine Medical Center. Betty Baker suffered leg injuries, Kennedy said. A second grandchild, Danielle Baker, 4, also of Old Town, was not injured in the accident. Neither McDonald nor her passenger, Jessica Tweedie, 17, of Bangor reported injuries.

Everyone involved was properly secured in the vehicles and the air bags in the vehicles deployed, Kennedy said.

Slippery road conditions contributed to an accident on Route 15 in Shirley in Piscataquis County that sent a Greenville man to the local hospital.

Ernest Smith, 62, was injured when his northbound 2000 Buick slid off the road and into guardrails at about 11:30 a.m., according to Dow of the Piscataquis County Sheriff’s Department. Smith was wearing his seat belt when the accident occurred, he said.

Smith was taken by ambulance to Charles A. Dean Memorial Hospital in Greenville where he was treated for chest injuries and released. Damage to Smith’s vehicle was estimated at $2,000.

Accidents also were reported in the Penobscot County communities of Levant, Glenburn and in Argyle where a school bus went off the road, with the bus driver, the sole occupant of the bus, complaining of chest pain.