Accident causes power outage in Scioto County

Published 10:11 am Wednesday, February 17, 2010

An accident involving a tree trimming truck caused a power outage in Scioto County Tuesday morning. The truck’s bucket got caught in power lines on Gallia Pike near Franklin Furnace.

Deputy Willard Buckler of the Scioto County Sheriff’s department said the Asplundh truck, which was contracted with AEP, was used to clear power lines.

The truck’s crew forgot to lower the bucket before moving the truck, causing the bucket to tangle in the lines.

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“They didn’t lower the boom this morning and as they came out the boom caught the line and pulled the truck,” Buckler said. “Brought it over on its side and almost tipped it over.”

Workers feared that if the truck was righted, the power line poles would snap, so they had to pick the boom up off the line before the truck fell one way or the other, Buckler said.

“They’ve got to kind of do it with kid gloves and kind of pick it up and ease it off,” Buckler said.

An AEP worker said the accident caused a loss of electricity to about 1000 customers Tuesday morning.

Power was restored around 1 p.m. Tuesday.