Date: Fri 18-Sep-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

SNET-Moore-Trudeau-Mile-Hill

Full Text:

Investigation Of South Main Street Incident Continues

(with photo)

Southern New England Telephone is expected to return to the intersection of

South Main Street and Mile Hill Road Saturday or Monday to install a new

utility pole to replace the one that fell across South Main Street September

9, causing a fluke accident and indirectly causing a second accident in which

a small amount of gasoline from a 9000-gallon tanker truck burst into flames.

SNET spokesman Kevin Moore said Wednesday SNET work crews have marked the site

where the new pole will be installed. After the accidents, utility cables were

attached via cabling to a large maple tree trunk at the northeast corner of

the intersection.

"It's only a temporary hold," Mr Moore said of the impromptu repair.

There may be liability involved in the pole's falling over.

Newtown police said the pole fell over due to excavation that had been done

near it at Trudeau Service Center.

"This will require a [SNET] investigation into what made that pole fall," Mr

Moore said. He declined to discuss who might be liable for the pole falling

down.

Because the area where the pole had stood is rocky, installing a new pole will

require drilling.

SNET has been coordinating the installation of a new utility pole with other

utility companies, which will also use it, Mr Moore said.

A SNET employee, who had been putting in long hours to cover shifts normally

worked by striking SNET union members, was on his way home shortly before 10

pm September 9. As he sat on Mile Hill Road waiting for the traffic signal on

Route 25 to change, a utility pole fell over, dragging a tangle of wires into

the intersection in front of him.

Then, despite his efforts to flag down a motorist heading south on Main

Street, he watched the car drive into, and up, cables that ascended another

pole across the intersection. The car flipped.

The driver of the 1994 Dodge, Stephen Archer, 41, of 16 Edmond Street,

Trumbull, received arm and leg injuries, according to police.

The pole that fell into the intersection was at the site of excavations under

way at Trudeau Enterprises, 49 South Main Street, at the corner of South Main

Street and Mile Hill Road.

Later that evening, at about 11 pm, while police and SNET personnel were still

at the scene, a Shell gasoline tanker truck traveling northbound on South Main

Street tried to make its way around detour barriers and turn onto Mile Hill

Road. The truck's dispensing valves clipped a utility pole and fractured,

spilling about 20 gallons of gasoline on the road. The gas ignited and

threatened to consume the full tanker.

Volunteer firefighters from Newtown Hook and Ladder had recently returned to

their firehouse after responding to the earlier accident call. They responded

to the second accident quickly.

The gasoline on the ground and road burned itself out, according to police,

but the fire ignited the truck's mud flaps. The truck fire was extinguished

before it could burn its way to the 9,000 gallons of gas in the tanker. The

truck driver, James R. Polowitz, 52, of 723 Main Street, Monroe, was not

injured in the accident. Police verbally warned him for making an improper

turn.

Traffic was detoured for eight hours.