FARMINGTON – Two men from Massachusetts trying to drive from a Kingfield bar to the place they were staying in Kingfield took a detour early Sunday.

Their truck was heading south toward downtown Farmington on Route 4 and struck a telephone pole between Aardvark Outfitters and Margaret Chase Smith Apartments on Horne’s Corner on Route 4. It proceeded down a banking diagonally, Farmington police Officer Edward Hastings said.

The section of Route 4 is under construction and no guardrails have been installed along the steep banking.

The truck continued 200 to 300 yards down the banking, which is at a 45 degree angle and is about 50 to 75 yards long from top to bottom, Hastings said.

Hastings said he saw a couple of men walking about 12:30 a.m. Sunday, and it wasn’t until later that he saw some tracks and noticed that the pole had been hit. Hastings had someone in the back of the cruiser at the time, he said.

Christopher Gilligan, 22, of Massachusetts, who had bitten his tongue and was treated at Franklin Memorial Hospital in Farmington after the accident, admitted to being in the truck, Hastings said. The other occupant was the owner of the 2004 Chevrolet pickup, Keith Swanson, 22, of Massachusetts, he said. But Hastings said he couldn’t determine which man was the driver because neither man would admit to it.

Swanson had come to Maine to buy an all-terrain vehicle, but had no way to tow the ATV home with his truck destroyed, Hastings said.