The driver was reaching for her cell phone when her vehicle struck a utility pole.
By Gail Geraghty
Staff Writer

PARIS – A broken utility pole left wires lying across Route 26 Wednesday morning, causing a power outage and disrupting traffic for six hours.

Patricia Bell, 50, of West Paris hit the pole around 5:30 a.m. while driving a 2002 Ford sport utility vehicle toward Norway, police Sgt. Michael Dailey said.

“She reached down to retrieve her cell phone,” at a curve in the highway and went off the side of the road through the exit area of Oxford Bank & Trust, Dailey said. Bell, who complained of pain but declined hospital transport, hit the pole head on, snapping it in two.

Speed was not a factor in the accident, Dailey said. The speed limit there is 25 miles an hour.

“To break a pole it depends on the age. The cold weather sometimes makes them more susceptible to breaking,” Dailey said.

Power was knocked out throughout the Market Square commercial area and on several surrounding side streets. The power was not restored until 11:30 a.m.

Police rerouted traffic down Briggs Avenue and across Pine Street to East Main Street.

Two weeks earlier, two utility poles were knocked down in front of the nearby Irving Station across the street by a logging truck.

That accident also caused a power outage.

Wednesday’s accident was more problematic because the lines blocked the highway. Workers from Central Maine Power, Adelphia Cable Co. and Verizon telephone company had to come to reconnect lines, and there were delays in the arrival of Verizon workers, Dailey said. CMP replaced the pole.