A truck heading up Gilbert Ave. in Pearl River hit low-hanging utility wires near Lois Drive, taking down wires and snapping one utility pole into three pieces late Thursday morning.
The driver of the FedEx Freight truck was temporarily trapped, but was not injured in the accident. As of 1:30 p.m., work crews with Orange & Rockland Utilities were on the scene repairing the damage and Orangetown Police had closed Gilbert Ave. from the entrance to Pearl River Middle School to just past Lois Ave and Lois Drive from Lenape to Gilbert.
Phone service at Pearl River Middle School was temporarily cut off and the school was run on generators. By 1:45 p.m., regular phone and electrical service were restored to the building. According to the Pearl River School District, dismissal will take place at the normal time, but all traffic to the middle school must come up Gilbert Ave. from Sickletown Road.
According to O&R, power was restored to all but one customer by 2:04 p.m.
According to Orangetown Police on the scene, the truck was well within the proper size limit to be on Gilbert Ave., in fact smaller than fire department vehicles that use the road. The wires would have had to be hanging lower than normal for the truck to strike them. When the truck hit the wires, it snapped a utility pole that had just been replaced after Hurricane Sandy.
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.
