Icy roads cause accidents in Lincoln

LINCOLN – A town woman was lucky to get away relatively unscathed from a nasty-looking accident in which her red car struck a utility pole on Route 2 early Friday, police said.

Black ice caused the accident in which Tammi-Lee Grant lost control of her late-model Buick, spun across the centerline and slammed into the pole near the South Lincoln boat landing while heading north at about 3:45 a.m., Lincoln police Officer Chad Chubbuck said.

“She was probably driving too fast for conditions, but with the way it was at the time, you probably couldn’t tell what the conditions were,” Chubbuck said Friday. “It was black ice at night.”

Lincoln firefighters used the Jaws of Life rescue device to cut Grant, whose age was not available, from the vehicle. She suffered a bruised leg and other contusions but was otherwise OK, Chubbuck said.

She was treated and released from Penobscot Valley Hospital after the accident, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Grant will not face any charges, Chubbuck said. She was on her way home from work at the time.

“The car was just destroyed,” he said. “She was very fortunate to get out of it OK.”

The damage to the vehicle looked so bad that drivers passing the wreckage for several hours afterwards almost got into accidents themselves because they were staring at it.

The accident was the second in that area on Friday morning caused by icy conditions. A pickup truck driven by Roger Batchelder, 38, of Enfield went off Route 155 in Enfield and hit a batch of trees at about 4:25 a.m., Penobscot County Sheriff’s Department Deputy Dave Duplisea said.

Batchelder was not injured. The truck was pulled out of the trees and he drove it home, Duplisea said.

Icy conditions caused schools in the Lincoln Lakes region to delay opening for one to two hours.

Police warned motorists to not be fooled by the unseasonably warm weather. Temperatures rose through the mid- to upper 30s into the 40-degree range on Friday, but at the time of the accidents, they were probably in the low- to mid-20s.