Crime & Safety
Tractor Trailer Mows Down Pole, Closing Highway for Hours in Wainscott
Traffic diverted off Montauk Highway due to wires in the roadway.
A tractor trailer took down a pole on Montauk Highway in Wainscott on Saturday morning, causing outages and closing a portion of the highway for more than seven hours.
Bridgehampton Fire Department Chief Gary Horsburgh said the call came over at about 8:40 a.m. as a tractor trailer fire, but when he arrived he found a pole, on the westbound side of the road just past Wainscott Northwest Road, ablaze.
"The pole was on fire and there were wires everywhere," he said. Two transformers also came down, he added.
According to the Long Island Power Authority outage map, 490 customers were effected. The estimated restoration time is 11:30 a.m.
The highway was closed between Sayre's Path and Wainscott Northwest Road. Horsburgh expects it will be closed for several hours while LIPA works to replace the pole.
The driver of the tractor trailer was not injured, but there was damage to the trailer, Horsburgh said.
East Hampton Town police remained on scene while a tow truck responded.
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