Route 422 eastbound was closed for about 12 hours Saturday just before the Pottstown Bypass near Douglassville after a Met-Ed pole, transformers and wires fell onto the road sometime in the middle of the night.
An Amity Township police officer discovered the pole and wires on the road near Klein Transportation Inc., 1336 Benjamin Franklin Highway, just before 3 a.m., Police Chief Jeffrey Smith said Monday.
Upon investigation, the officer saw a sedan that was ensnared in the wires down the road. The car was occupied by a 60-year-old Douglassville man who said he didn’t see the pole blocking the road until the last second because the street lamps were dark, Smith said.
The driver put the car in reverse but as he backed up, the car became more entangled. Unsure whether the wires were energized, he remained in the car.
Officers had the man stay in the car while they awaited fire and rescue services. Officials waited for a Met-Ed crew to arrive to shut off power.
The man wasn’t injured, but he was stranded in the idled car for about 1½ hours, Smith said.
It would be many more hours before the road would reopen. Along with removing the pole and wires from the road, crews had to contend with fluid leaking from the transformers. Some of the fluid flowed into storm sewer grates.
An environmental remediation contractor was brought in to clean up the road and stormwater lines.
Eastbound Route 422 traffic was diverted at River Bridge Road, which is the intersection just before the bus company, onto Route 724 until about 3 p.m.
A number of motorists drove around traffic cones instead of getting off Route 422, the chief said, adding that police issued several citations for disregarding traffic control devices.
“It blows my mind that people would jeopardize the safety of utility workers and first responders,” Smith said.
Met-Ed spokesman Todd Meyers said the cause of the pole falling hasn’t been determined, but officials believe it may have been struck well before it came down by a vehicle that didn’t remain on the scene.
About 600 customers initially lost power, but Met-Ed engineers were able to reroute distribution to restore power to all but about 240 customers a short time later. All customers had power by 1:45 p.m. Saturday, he said.