AUGUSTA — A Newcastle man was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries Monday after his pickup truck went off the northbound lanes of Interstate 95 and hit a tree, police said. 

The crash was one of an estimated 20 reported on I-95 because of a snow squall across the region Monday morning. The sudden snowfall came as other fender benders were reported across central Maine and as emergency workers responded to a tractor-trailer fire on the interstate. No injuries were reported in the fire.

Shannon Moss, the public information officer for the Maine Department of Public Safety, said troopers from the Maine State Police responded to the I-95 wreck, near Exit 113 in Augusta, just before 7:30 a.m.

The initial investigation by police found a 2003 Toyota Tacoma operated by a 19-year-old Newcastle man had gone off the road and into the median, where it hit a tree, Moss said. Police did not identify the driver Monday afternoon.

The driver was taken to MaineGeneral Medical Center in Augusta, which is just off Exit 113 and visible from where the crash occurred. He was later taken by a LifeFlight of Maine helicopter to Maine Medical Center in Portland. Information about his condition was not available late Monday afternoon.

Speed and weather conditions were considered factors that contributed to the crash, Moss said.

Police asked that anyone who witnessed the crash to contact Trooper Keith Barton at 207-624-7076.