PENTICTON – A garbage truck accidentally brought down four to five utility lines in Penticton on Saturday.
Captain Graham Gowe with the Penticton fire department told Global News the lines, which are serviced by Shaw and Telus, came down around 8:30 a.m.
Gowe says the garbage truck didn’t have its forks lowered all the way, and as a result took down the wires on Forestbrook Drive near Government Street.
“He had the forks up… he was heading to the landfill and puts the forks up because it’s easier on the hydraulics, they don’t bounce as much,” says Gowe.
“When they’re up like that, they’re not designed to have wires glide, they end up bringing the wires down… It’s a regular route for him every Saturday so he was kind of surprised that he caught the wires.”
Gowe says when it’s hot out, power lines tend to stretch and sag. The downed lines caused a service shut down to three homes on Forestbrook Drive.
Traffic was stopped on the road for about 45 minutes while crews disconnected the lines and pulled them back to the edge of the street, according to Gowe.