A large truck caused chaos in Buckhannon on Thursday after it took out power and utility lines on both Route 20 and Route 33, causing several roads to be closed for an extended period of time.
Steve Wykoff, Upshur County’s Director of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, said the truck first brought down utility lines near Burger King before getting on Route 33 heading toward Elkins.
“The truck had a piece of equipment on a trailer, and as he was going up Route 20, he took out a line right around the Burger King area,” Wykoff told My Buckhannon. “Then got on 33 eastbound and ended up taking out several lines that went across Route 33 by the trade school.”
Another tractor-trailer then hit the downed lines, creating a safety situation that necessitated the initial road closure at about 1 p.m.
“One of those lines ended up crossing another tractor-trailer that was behind him, so we had to shut down 33 for everyone’s safety to make sure the lines weren’t charged, and the people inside the tractor-trailer were OK,” Wykoff said. “We couldn’t move anything until the power company got here and cleared the lines.”
The driver of the truck allegedly had no idea what had happened and continued on toward Elkins before he was caught by Upshur County deputies.
Sheriff Mike Coffman said the truck was from a repo company that had repossessed a piece of logging equipment. The driver, who was from Kentucky, was issued several citations.
“It did not have any registration on the trailer,” Coffman said. “The truck registration was expired, it had no permits, was over height, had no pilot vehicles, had no escort.”
After initially bringing down utility lines near Burger King, the truck hit the power lines on Route 33 and continued east. Deputies caught up to the truck near the county line, Coffman said, and the driver claimed he did not know he had hit anything.
“We were able to catch that vehicle out near the Upshur County line,” Coffman said. “The Public Service Commission came in and did a truck inspection, issued some citations and put the driver out of service, and we issued four citations to that individual.”
Back near Buckhannon, the road closure was extended when one of the utility poles on Route 33 ultimately snapped under the pressure.
“The pole on the other side of 33, across from Fred Eberle, ended up snapping from the pressure,” Wykoff said, noting that the first replacement pole “didn’t quite work out,” so a second pole had to be brought in.
Route 33 was closed from the Route 20 to Morton Avenue exits. Traffic was initially rerouted through downtown Buckhannon because Morton Avenue was also closed temporarily.
“Morton Avenue was shut down for a while, too,” Wykoff said. “The line came down to the pole on the south side of Morton Avenue, on the corner of the Fred Eberle lot. So, when he took that out, the lines dropped across Morton Avenue as well. That’s what caused a tremendous influx of traffic on Cleveland Avenue, Fifth Street, First Street and through downtown.”
Coffman said he spent Thursday afternoon working through the various aspects of the incident.
“The electric line actually snapped in half,” Coffman said. “One half went down across Morton Avenue, and the other half went down across the eastbound lanes [of Route 33]. The cable was lying on the hood of another tractor-trailer. It was too unstable on the westbound side, with the pole being broken, to let traffic flow underneath it. After leaving 33, I was at the courthouse light assisting for the longest time. It was packed downtown.”
Various roads were closed into Thursday evening as crews worked to finish repairs.
