AUBURN – A traffic accident in New Auburn late Wednesday afternoon shut off power and backed up traffic.

Police said a truck slammed into a utility pole about 3:40 p.m., pulling down wires and cutting power for several blocks.

With traffic lights out, police scurried to several intersections to direct cars and trucks through the trouble zone. The result was traffic tie-ups along Main Street and back to the Longley and South bridges.

Nobody was hurt in the accident, but police were still trying to control traffic more than an hour later. Utility crews were called to repair fallen wires.

One man reported it took him nearly a half-hour to get from downtown Lewiston to his home in New Auburn. A woman traveling from a Lisbon Street eatery to the upper Court Street area in Auburn said the drive was slow going all the way.

The problem was compounded by a spate of vehicle crashes in Auburn around the same time the lights went out. By supper time, police in Auburn were experiencing staffing problems as officers went from traffic detail to crash investigations.

Police expected the power outage to be fixed by early Wednesday night.