Power went out for 807 Tri-State EMC customers, some affected for over four hours, and traffic near Pizza Hut in Blue Ridge was tied up just as long Friday morning, August 7, after a dump truck snagged a power wire and overturned.
The truck, owned by Lance Trucking of Blue Ridge, had left the trucking company’s lot, was crossing Old U.S. 76 at the three way stop, and heading toward Highway 515 on Windy Ridge Circle.
Lt. Gary Huffman of the Blue Ridge Police Department said the driver did not realize the dump bed on the truck was up when he left the lot. The bed snagged the power line holding the caution light over the three way stop, which in turn snapped a power pole as the driver continued up the hill. A short distance up the hill and just past the turn into Mountain Valley Community Bank, the wire caused the dump truck to overturn, coming to rest on its passenger side.
Lights flickered throughout Blue Ridge and customers in the immediate area and along Old U.S. 76/East First Street immediately lost power. The outage also affected the traffic light at Highway 515 and Windy Ridge Circle.
Huffman said he was dispatched to the scene at 9:18 a.m.
Around 1:45 p.m., the Tri-State outage map still indicated four customers without electricity in the immediate area of the crash, including the Conoco gas station and Checkers drive-in.
By 2 p.m., the outage map showed everything was restored except the caution light.
A crew from Fannin Wrecker worked for an hour to upright the truck and clear the street. However, Tri-State EMC work to restore power kept part of Windy Ridge Circle blocked until 2 p.m., forcing traffic to be rerouted through the Food Lion parking lot.
Huffman said no charges will be filed against the driver, Charles Avril Gregory of Lickskillet Road in Fannin County.