SR 61 between High St and US 42 reopens 3:50 p.m.

WEDNESDAY 3:50 p.m. — Emergency personnel have their hands full this afternoon after a northbound semi tractor trailer snagged the overhead phone lines in front of the 9–1-1 Center in Mt. Gilead.

The truck makes regular deliveries to DC Tire and, as it pulled into the lot about 12:20 p.m., caught the overhead phone line, pulling the pole (on the opposite side of the road) over. A second southbound semi was unable to stop and caught several lines, snapping them and the pole near the base.

The accident brought traffic on SR 61 to a halt. Mt. Gilead Police, the Mt. Gilead Fire Department and the Morrow County Sheriff’s Office are on the scene. No traffic is permitted between South Street and Neal Avenue until the lines are cleared.

“What happened is that truck hooked the phone wire in the parking lot,” said Mt. Gilead Fire Chief Greg Young, pointing to the X-tra Lease semi at DC Tire. The line runs from a pole in front of the 9–1-1 Center across S. Main St. to DC Tire. “That lowered the lines and another truck got tangled up in them, too. The pole belongs to the phone company, so they and the electric company are trying to decide who’s going to do what.”

The phone lines to the 9–1-1 Center are in one conduit and the electric to the facility is in the other. Both were still ‘live’ after the accident and providing service to the Center.
The Sheriff’s Office posted a deputy at the SR 61/US 42 split south of Mt. Gilead

“This is going to take some time,” Sheriff Steve Brenneman said at the scene. “On that pole you have telephone, electric, cable and the main feeds for 9–1-1. The pole will have to be pulled and a new one set. The conduits there which feed the 9–1-1 Center — they’re going to have be careful drilling, that they don’t get into them.”

Brenneman said the truck pulls into DC Tire on a regular basis, so something may have changed with the height of the line.

UPDATE: Crews reopened the road at 3:50 p.m. after Ohio Edison replaced the broken pole.