Date: Fri 11-Sep-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: CURT

Quick Words:

police-truck-accident

Full Text:

A Long, Strange Night On South Main

(with cuts)

A Southern New England Telephone employee, putting in long hours to cover

shifts normally worked by striking union members, was on his way home shortly

before 10 pm Wednesday night. As he sat on Mile Hill Road waiting for the

traffic signal on Route 25 to change, a utility pole keeled over, dragging a

tangle of wires into the intersection in front of him.

Then, despite his best efforts to flag down an oblivious motorist heading

south on Main Street, he watched as the car drove into, and up, cables that

ascended another pole across the intersection. The car flipped.

The driver of the car, Stephen Archer, 41, of Trumbull, was not injured,

according to police.

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

currently under way at Trudeau Enterprises, 49 South Main Street, at the

corner of South Main and Mile Hill Road. Police did not offer any conclusions

as to why the pole fell.

Later that evening, at about 11:30, while police and SNET personnel were still

on the scene, a Shell gasoline tanker truck was travelling northbound on Route

25 and tried to negotiate around barriers and turn onto Mile Hill Road. The

truck's valves clipped a utility pole and were broken in the maneuver,

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

threatened to consume the full tanker. Fortunately, volunteer firefighters

from Newtown Hook and Ladder had only recently returned to their firehouse

after responding to the earlier accident call and were able to respond to the

fire scene quickly.

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

but the fire ignited the truck's mudflaps. The truck fire was extinguished

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

truck driver was not injured in the accident. Police did not identify the

driver.

Those emergency crews and agencies responding included Newtown Hook and

Ladder, Sandy Hook Fire and Rescue Company, Newtown Ambulance, the state

Department of Environmental Protection, the state Department of

Transportation, the Newtown Highway Department, SNET, Connecticut Light &

Power, and Charter Communications.

Also American Environmental Technologies of Bethel was called in to stabilize

the tanker and offload its cargo.

The clean-up operation tied up the intersection all night, and barricades were

still on the scene in the morning, interfering with morning traffic.

Police said the accidents remain under investigation.