DIXFIELD – A Verizon line crew from Farmington finished repairing a fiber optic cable early Tuesday evening along Route 2 after a hit-and-run accident damaged it and a utility pole Friday morning.

The incident disrupted telephone service, 911 emergency calls, the Internet, cell phone service, and phone-related computer connections in Dixfield, Mexico and Rumford. Service was restored Friday evening and the cable fixed temporarily, a lineman said late Tuesday afternoon at the scene.

Damage from the accident will cost Verizon tens of thousands of dollars, spokesman Dan Breton said Tuesday afternoon in Portland. He didn’t yet have an estimate.

“If we knew who it was, we’d go after them for damages,” Breton said.

Police Chief Richard A. Pickett said early Tuesday evening that he got one tip, so far, that he’s investigating to determine who and what hit the pole. He urged anyone who may have witnessed the accident or has information about it to call the station at 562-4517.

Evidence along the road shoulder after the 9 a.m. Friday accident showed dual-wheel tracks going off the road into the pole, Pickett said Friday.

On Tuesday at the scene, Verizon line splicer Skip Rugh of Farmington said whatever the vehicle was, it severed the pole and then snagged the slack point of the fiber optics cable when it fell, ripping it in half.

“He couldn’t have picked a worse cable to hit. It’s the smallest one, but it has a lot of stuff running through it,” Rugh said.

The cable has 24 fiber optic lines, each the size of a strand of hair, he said.

Verizon lineman Art Xanthos of Dixfield said cell phone service also was disrupted because it was also being routed through the cable.

“Just because it’s a cell phone doesn’t mean there isn’t a land line hooked to it,” he said.

Xanthos said Central Maine Power replaced the pole Friday night, then a Verizon crew spliced the fiber optics cable strands together, finishing the temporary fix at 10:30 p.m.

Rugh said they returned Monday to troubleshoot the line, then repaired several damage spots Tuesday.

Breton said that when the cable went down, Verizon’s backup plan for 911 emergency calls went into operation. Such calls were handled, but they didn’t immediately get routed through dispatching centers.

“The calls were answered, they weren’t missed,” Breton said.

Fire Chief Scott Dennett said early Tuesday evening that at least one 911 call came into the fire department on Friday. But, he didn’t know if it was an actual emergency call or someone testing 911. Second Assistant Chief Don St. Germain took the call.

“We found out calls were coming in here. We had no idea. We never got any communication about it,” Dennett said.

In the 562 exchange, calls were routed to the Dixfield Fire Company. Dennett said those towns would have included Carthage, Dixfield and Peru. Once they realized what was happening, Dennett said they kept the fire station manned by firefighters to answer any 911 emergency calls routed to the station.

Dennett said if there had been an emergency call, a Dixfield firefighter would have answered it, then contacted the Oxford County Regional Command Center in Paris via radio, to have fire, ambulance or police dispatched.

Cell phones worked for the most part, but people couldn’t call into 562, 364 or 369 exchanges with a cell phone.