What began as snow falling throughout the state Monday quickly turned to rain, contributing to several accidents and, in one case, leaving a Hartland woman in the hospital with head injuries after she lost control of her vehicle and hit a tree.

In Somerset County, snowfall depths ranged from 2 to 4 inches, but as temperatures rose throughout the day, the snow rapidly turned to rain by midmorning.

Back roads became covered with several inches of dangerous slush, Deputy Wilfred Dodge of the Somerset County Sheriff’s Department said. “We’ve had accidents everywhere,” he said.

The most serious appeared to be in St. Albans where Carrie Grifford, 35, of Hartland, lost control of her 2003 Pontiac on Corinna Road, near Square Road.

“She lost control in the slush, slid off the road and broadsided a tree with the driver’s side door,” Dodge said.

Grifford suffered a head injury and a pelvic fracture and was taken to Sebasticook Valley Hospital in Pittsfield and then transferred to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor.

Her passenger, Scott Spencer, also of Hartland, was uninjured. Dodge said the accident was witnessed by St. Albans Assistant Fire Chief Jason Emery, who is also a Pittsfield police officer, and who had just left another accident scene.

Robert Higgins, Somerset County’s Emergency Management director, said Monday that the amount of water in the county’s lakes and rivers was high but that it was causing no problems. “We haven’t received any complaints yet,” he said, but added the high water situation was being monitored.

In Dover-Foxcroft, traffic on Route 7 was tied up for about six hours Monday after a tractor-trailer loaded with potatoes rolled over into a ditch.

Both the driver of the truck and his dog escaped injury but the accident caused the load of potatoes to spill out into a swampy area and about 100 gallons of diesel fuel to leak from the truck’s tank.

The Department of Environmental Protection was called to investigate the fuel leak.

Robert Daudelin, 37, of Levant, told police he had driven far to the right of his lane to avoid an oncoming car that was fishtailing toward him when the tires on his vehicle got caught up in the slush on the road. The truck went off the road and rolled onto its side, according to Dover-Foxcroft police Officer Graham Pierce.

Daudelin said he had just picked up a load of potatoes in Atkinson that were headed to Frito Lay before the 10:30 a.m. accident.

Pierce said Clean Harbors responded to the scene to clean up the fuel spill. He was unsure what will be done to clean up the potatoes.

It took two wreckers to right the tractor-trailer which was damaged extensively.

A Rumford man escaped serious injury Monday morning after the tractor-trailer that he was driving skidded out of control and hit a guardrail on Interstate 95 in Oakfield.

Maine State Police Trooper Josh Birmingham said that the accident occurred just after 9 a.m., when snow was falling in the area.

According to Birmingham, Donald Martin was operating a tractor-trailer registered to Ed Thayer Inc. of New Jersey. The trucking company has an office in Oxford. The trailer, which did not overturn, was loaded with household merchandise.

The trooper said that Martin was coming around a corner off a bridge when he lost control of the vehicle and skidded into the guardrail.

There was no major damage to the guardrail, but the truck had several thousand dollars in damage.

Martin was taken by Houlton Ambulance to Houlton Regional Hospital but did not appear to be seriously injured, according to the trooper.

Some parts of northern Aroostook County were expected to see up to 8 inches of snow by the time Monday’s storm ended, and officials with the National Weather Service in Caribou predicted that the largest amount of snow would fall in the St. John Valley.

Several police departments in Aroostook County reported minor accidents, mostly fender benders, with several vehicles off the road.

The Aroostook County Sheriff’s Department dealt with several minor accidents on Route 11 and U.S. Route 1, none of which resulted in serious injury.

In Presque Isle, police reported a few minor accidents, and Caribou police said that they had assisted several motorists who had skidded off the road.

Schools throughout southern Aroostook were canceled Monday. Students in SAD 29 in Houlton, SAD 70 in Hodgdon and Community School District 9 in Dyer Brook all got the day off.

Students in SAD 33 in Frenchville and St. Agatha were dismissed early.

Most sporting events in the region scheduled to take place Monday evening also were canceled.

BDN reporters Jen Lynds, Sharon Mack and Diana Bowley contributed to this story.