When Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap’s car slid out of control and hit a guardrail Friday morning on Interstate 95 near Sidney, he added his accident to the long list of crashes that kept law enforcement and emergency responders busy much of the day.

The slick roads were caused by a snow and sleet storm that hit the state Friday, leading to numerous accidents.

“We have had a pile of them,” Sgt. Sean Hashey of the Maine State Police said Friday evening. He said the Orono barracks alone had dealt with 46 reported vehicle crashes since 5:20 a.m.

“That’s an awful lot,” he said, adding that most appeared minor. “It doesn’t look like there are any serious injuries.”

Hashey, whose shift started at 4 p.m. Friday said many of the afternoon accidents were related to the changing temperatures.

“We had that little warm spell after the storm, [and] everything got wet,” he said. “When it froze, people were fishtailing on the highway and going off the road.

“We had several rollovers,” he said.

Penobscot County Regional Communication Center dispatchers also reported Friday evening more than a dozen minor vehicle crashes in the Bangor area.

The Bangor Police Department responded to reports of 10 vehicle crashes between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. Friday, with two resulting in minor personal injury.

While the number of reported rollovers was high, nearly all of the crashes were reportedly minor, the dispatchers said.

At mile marker 197 northbound on I-95, a teenager rolled her vehicle over at about 4:45 p.m. and was ejected, Hashey said.

“She’s lucky,” he said. “She has some broken fingers and abrasions.”

Around the same time, a tractor-trailer on Route 9 jackknifed near Amherst, closing one lane for nearly three hours.

Secretary of State Dunlap escaped injury during Friday morning’s commute when his state-issued 2002 Buick Century slid out of control on the interstate made slick by heavy, wet snow. The vehicle crashed into a guardrail, causing minor damage to its front end.

“Although this was a low-speed impact, I’m certainly grateful I was wearing my seat belt,” he said in a press release. “It was the difference between simply picking up my glasses off the floor and cracking my skull against the dashboard or windshield.

“I hope my small misfortune serves as a reminder to everyone to buckle up – both to be safe and to obey the law,” he added.

Dunlap was able to drive the damaged car away from the accident scene.

An official with the National Weather Service in Caribou said Friday night that drivers should take precautions on Saturday too as road conditions are expected to be similar.

Temperatures are expected to be in the mid-30s during the day and below freezing in the evening, said Tom Stenman, a hydrometeorologist technician for NWS.

While the temperatures may be slightly above freezing, rain and sleet still can freeze when hitting the ground because, “the road surfaces are still going to be cold,” he said.

Sunday’s temperatures will be very different, Stenman said, with a high projected at around 13 degrees in the Bangor area, and a low Sunday evening at 8 degrees below zero. With anticipated wind gusts of 10 to 15 mph, Sunday evening temperatures will feel more like 20 to 30 degrees below zero, he added.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.