A commercial truck tore down power and cable lines in two towns before being pulled over on Route 27 in Wiscasset in the morning on July 25.

The Sagadahoc County Sheriff's Office received a call at 8:19 a.m. that a commercial truck that had pulled down the yellow beacon at the intersection of Route 1 and Nequasset Road in Woolwich.

The truck, registered to a construction company from Bowdoinham, was hauling an excavator that was not properly loaded, according to Sagadahoc Sheriff's Lt. Kelvin Temple. Sticking too high above the truck, the equipment yanked down the light fixture and lines, causing some damage to other vehicles.

Chief Deputy Bret Strout said there were no injuries from the resulting three-vehicle accident.

The first car behind the commercial truck, a 2010 Totota Carolla registered to Neal Wood of Belmont, got entangled with the fallen cable. The next car, a 2007 Nissan Sentra registered to Maura McDonough of Brunswick, struck the traffic beacon.

Strout said the truck driver, David Kelley, 22, of Bath, likely did not hear or feel the collision and continued into the next town.

The Department of Transportation responded to the downed beacon and has since contracted with AD Electric out of Sabattus to reinstall it, according to the DOT's Midcoast region traffic engineer David Allen. The cost of the damage is not known, but Allen said the department will bill the insurance carrier for the truck's employer for equipment and labor.

Wiscasset Police Chief Troy Cline said the same truck continued on Route 1 into Wiscasset, pulling more lines down in its path. The equipment struck a cable line in the area of Napa Auto Parts on the Bath Road, another cable line in the area of the Bradford Road on the Bath Road, and also the power line connected to the former superintendent's office on the Gardiner Road. 

A Lincoln County Sheriff's deputy pulled over the truck on Route 27.

According to Cline, whose department took over the investigation, a crew from Central Maine Power Company estimated the damage to be much more than the department's $1,000 accident report threshold. Cline contacted the Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Unit of the State Police.

Kelly and/or the company he works for, Midcoast Excavation, will have to pay damages and a charge of approximately $300 will be assessed for exceeding the height limit without a permit, according to trooper Mark Barney of the State Police. Vehicle operators are required to obtain a permit for anything they haul exceeding 13 feet, 6 inches high. The equipment, which Kelly loaded onto the truck trailer himself, Barney said, stretched 17 feet, 9 inches high. 

Barney chalks the incident up to inexperience. He said no injuries were reported.