CALEB NICKERSON
CLARENDON Aug. 31, 2020
Around noon on Aug. 31, a large moving truck crashed into a hydro pole just outside Shawville on Hwy. 148, before driver plowed through a fence and more than 100 feet of . . .
brush in an effort to get back on the road. Due to the depth of the ditch, he became stuck and required assistance.
Shawville Clarendon Fire Chief Lee Laframboise attended the scene with several trucks and said it was clear that the driver had tried to leave the scene after striking the pole.
“[He drives] down in the ditch, cut a hydro pole off, then continued driving through … trees and everything, goes around the next hydro pole, and they’re like what, 150 feet apart? [He] drives past the next pole, turns and tries to come back up on the highway.”
In addition to heavy brush, there was a small barbed wire fence that was flattened by the truck.
Though several posts on social media stated that the driver swerved to avoid a deer, that wasn’t the explanation he gave to police.
“I know that he wasn’t hurt and the hydro pole was damaged, but there’s no indication of why he went off the road,” Sûreté du Québec spokesperson Sgt. Marc Tessier said.
Hydro Quebec spokesperson Alain Paquette said that the broken pole resulted in 78 customers losing power for the afternoon.
“Because of this accident we had to change the post, which is work that is more complex and takes some more time, so the electricity got back around 6:30 p.m.,” he said.
