Traffic was snarled for hours Wednesday in Seymour after two trucks pulled down utility lines on West Tipton Street and caused two poles to snap.
The incident started at about 9:40 a.m. with a truck carrying a tractor eastbound in the 600 block of West Tipton Street snagging a sagging utility line, causing it to sag more. A few minutes later, a westbound semitrailer struck the low-hanging wires, which caused two utility poles to snap in half — one on each side of the street. At least two other utility poles also were broken.
When the poles hit the ground, that shattered the transformers that were on them and knocked power out to nearby businesses.
“Those transformers have oil in them to cool them, so they ruptured out onto the highway,” Seymour Police Department Chief Greg O’Brien said. “There’s 25 gallons of oil in each of those transformers.”
Seymour firefighters responding to the scene were able to contain the oil leaking from the transformers, and Seymour Water Pollution Control employees responded to make sure the oil didn’t get in the storm sewers.
Duke Energy officials also were on scene to help absorb the oil, and Indiana Department of Environmental Management officials responded, too.
No one was injured in the incident, which forced the closure of Tipton Street from Walnut Street to Brown Street until early in the evening. Indiana State Police helped block Tipton Street since that’s also U.S. 50 and it was shut down for an extended period of time.
O’Brien said state law requires utility lines to be at least 16 feet above the roadway. Officers investigating the accident determined the truck hauling the tractor was below the minimum, he said. The names of the drivers were not available.
Duke Energy reported that five customers, including a church, were left without power throughout the day.
A Duke Energy official at the scene said four poles will have to be replaced.
