VALDOSTA —
A tractor-trailer was nearly split in half following an accident Tuesday in front of the Smok’n Pig.
Around 3:35 p.m., on Old U.S. 41 North, a truck drove into a low-lying telephone line, lowering it right in front of an oncoming tractor-trailer, noted Lowndes County Fire Marshal Darryl Hall.
The tractor-trailer, which was traveling back to Orlando, Fla., could not avoid snagging the lowered line, Hall said. When the line snapped, the wooden posts holding it broke into pieces which went flying in several directions. A piece of one of the posts was seen planted in the ground at Smith Northview Hospital.
Lowndes County Fire and Rescue, the Georgia State Patrol and the Georgia Department of Transportation responded to the scene.
“The driver was really a victim of circumstance,” Hall said. “There was no way for him to avoid running into that line.”
Lowndes County Fire Chief Richard Guyton said the fire department always responds to scenes where power lines are down.
“We’re here as a safety concern,” he said. “We have rerouted traffic until the trailer could be towed and the downed lines removed.”
The driver of the AGC Solutions truck and his passenger said they were on the way back to Orlando when the accident happened. Both said they were shaken, but otherwise not harmed.
“I’ve been driving trucks for 30 years and never once had a ticket or accident,” driver Miguel Montavo said.
He and his girlfriend, Abigail Diaz, waited in the hot sun for a bus to come and take them back home to Orlando.
The driver of the first truck to hit the line left the scene but was tracked down for questioning.
No injuries were reported.
Additional information was not known at press time.
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Related Photos
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Georgia State Patrol and Lowndes County Fire and Rescue personnel work the scene of an accident on Old U.S. 41 North, near the intersection with North Valdosta Road. A tractor-trailer was nearly split in two after it snagged a low-hanging telephone line Tuesday. Paul Leavy
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Lowndes County Fire and Rescue personnel survey the damage done to a tractor-trailer nearly split in two Tuesday afternoon on Old U.S. 41 North. Paul Leavy
Discussion
September 8, 2010
