An Iowa DOT maintenance truck knocked out traffic signal lights and other utilities in Charles City Tuesday.
The Charles City Police Department says they responded to the incident at the intersection of North Grand Avenue and Highway 18 shortly after 10 a.m. The boom hoist of the DOT truck, operated by 40-year-old Jamey Welter of Nashua, caught on overhead power lines and also struck and bent a set of traffic lights, knocking them out of service.
Pete Hjelmstad with the DOT’s Mason City District office says crews had removed a sign in the area nearby, however, the boom hoist did not get lowered all the way down when they were leaving and caught the power lines and signal lights. He adds there were no injuries and there was no damage to the truck.
Two utility poles just east of the intersection also came down causing additional utility outages. Crews from MidAmerican Energy, Mediacom and Perry Novak Electric responded to the scene to restore utility services interrupted by the wreck.
Hjelmstad says the DOT hopes to have traffic signal lights operating by Friday or early next week at the latest. In the meantime, a stop sign was placed in the middle of the intersection to control traffic flow in all directions.
