Crime & Safety

Truck Snaps Utility Pole in Half; Wires Injure Pedestrian

Low-hanging cables snagged an 18-wheeler driving on Park Avenue during the Tuesday evening rush hour.

A truck pulled power lines, telephone wires and a 35-foot utility pole into the middle of Park Avenue Tuesday evening. One woman, a pedestrian, suffered minor injuries in the incident, Scotch Plains police said.

At about 5:30 p.m., an 18-wheeler traveling south on Park Avenue became ensnared in low-hanging electrical and telephone wires. The force the truck exerted on the wires snapped a six-inch-thick utility pole in two, and the truck pulled the entire network of wood, metal and cables the ground. 

As the wires fell, they struck a woman walking along Park Avenue, police said. She was transported to a hospital for a minor laceration. Police did not issue the truck driver a citation because the wires were below-height.

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The cables remained intact and did not sever, police said. The incident did cause any businesses or residences to lose power. The ERA Queen City Realty office at 310 Park Avenue, however, located adjacent to the snapped utility pole, lost its phone service, a PSE&G troubleshooter said.

The incident occurred between Mountain Avenue and Grand Street, in front of the Scotch Plains Baptist Church, and in close proximity to Route 22. It is one of Scotch Plains's busiest thoroughfares. But with large wooden splinters, live electrical cables and other debris littering the road, police were forced to shut down that section of Park Avenue at the height of rush hour. Cars and SUVs soon lined the roads around the Baptist church.

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Emergency crews, however, worked quickly to clear the roughly 500-foot stretch of road, and a troubleshooter from PSE&G restrung the wires over Park Avenue, police said. Within 45 minutes, the road was clear, the police departed and traffic resumed as normal. 


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