Fire from live wires destroys vehicle
By:John Tredrea
Tragedy was narrowly averted during Monday afternoon’s severe thunderstorm when the driver of a pickup truck on county Route 518 jumped out of the vehicle just before it was ignited by three downed wires carrying 52,000 volts of electricity that had fallen onto the vehicle.
Police have not determined the identity of the driver. (See related account, Page 1A).
"When the wires came down, they de-energized for a brief time," Hopewell Township Police Lt. George Meyer said Wednesday morning. "Fortunately, it was while they were de-energized that the driver of the pickup truck jumped out of the vehicle and got clear of it. Shortly after he did so, the wires re-energized and the truck caught on fire."
The truck was destroyed by flames.
"The fire department couldn’t put out the fire while the power was still on, or the firefighters would have been electrocuted," Lt. Meyer said. "By the time the power was cut, the truck was destroyed."
The incident happened about 5:30 p.m. on county Route 518, east of Hopewell Borough between Aunt Molly Road and Province Line Road.
A landscaping truck also was enmeshed in the fallen wires on that stretch of Route 518, Lt. Meyer said. Its driver opted to stay in the truck. Fortunately, it did not catch fire and the man left the truck once the power in the downed lines was cut. The truck was not damaged.
One of the three wires knocked down by the storm carries 26,000 volts, Lt. Meyer said. The other two wires carry 13,000 volts each.