ASHLAND – Four sisters died instantly Monday when their car strayed into the path of a tractor-trailer loaded with logs that ran over the car and pushed it hundreds of feet down Route 11.

Police Chief Cyr Martin identified the sisters as Paige Long, 16, Melinda “Mindy” Long, 15, Victoria Basso, 5, and Trinity Basso, 3.

The four were in a 1997 two-door Pontiac Sunfire.

Martin identified their parents as Joe and Deanna Basso of Ashland.

At about 11:30 a.m., the northbound car appeared to have strayed into the driving lane of the southbound truck some four miles south of the Ashland business district.

The impact left the car in a ditch on one side of Route 11. The truck was rolled over into the ditch on the opposite side 200 feet farther down the road.

The four sisters had just left home, about half a mile south of the accident scene.

The car carrying the girls had just come around a slight curve, “just enough to cause her [driver Paige Long] to go out of her lane,” Martin said.

Traffic was stopped at the scene for hours. At 5:30 p.m., Martin said it would be late evening before traffic could resume. The highway is the shortest route between Sherman Mills and Fort Kent.

A Maine State Police accident reconstruction team was at the scene, along with a unit of the Maine State Police Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Section.

Representatives of the state Department of Environmental Protection and the state Department of Transportation were present to clean up fuel and debris.

On Monday afternoon, a long section of Route 11, starting just south of the intersection with Rafford Road, was strewn with pieces of plastic and metal from the automobile and the truck.

Oil, gasoline and diesel fuel covered several hundred feet of the pavement. The odor of petroleum filled the air.

The accident occurred about 200 feet south of the Apostolic Pentecostal Church, which is at the intersection of Route 11 and the Rafford Road.

The car, driven by Paige Long, apparently strayed into the southbound lane. The driver of the truck noticed the car and tried to veer right, but the truck ran over the vehicle.

Gerald Bean, 39, of Enfield, driver of the 2005 Freightliner truck, was headed south in a truck owned by Dunn’s Express of Howland. The truck had been loaded in Portage Lake.

Bean suffered only minor bruises and refused treatment, Martin said.

Both vehicles were demolished.

“The car seemed to be on the wrong side of the road,” Martin said. “The trucker tried to react, but he could not.

“He ran right over the car and dragged it several hundred feet before the two vehicles split from each other,” he said. “The truck continued and rolled over in the ditch.”

Martin said the car probably was headed for Ashland Community High School so that the 15-year-old sister could go to a ballgame. The two older sisters were students at the school.

Volunteer firefighters oversaw two roadblocks, one at the intersection of Routes 11 and 163, at the southern outlet of the business district, and one just north of the accident scene.

Southbound traffic was detoured through the Garfield Road, which re-enters Route 11 south of the accident site.

Another roadblock was established just south of the accident scene.

A brisk wind from the northwest made the day very cold.

Around 2 p.m., volunteers brought the emergency personnel food and coffee.

A volunteer firefighter at the scene said emergency workers were having a hard time: Most of them knew the four who died.

“The girls were related, like nieces, of several people on the ambulance department,” Martin said. “Some of them are having a rough time. … This is a very small town, and this is felt all over town,” he said. “Some people are stressed right out. They are taking this very hard.”

Stress management teams were called in, Martin said. He said the two older girls were well known around the high school.

Martin, who is also the chairman of the SAD 32 board, said he approved assistance for grieving students Monday afternoon.