Clayton News Daily

By Linda Looney-Bond

lbond@news-daily.com

Clayton County Police blocked off Upper Riverdale Road at Tara Boulevard for about three hours Monday, after a tractor-trailer truck got tangled up in telephone lines that were hanging low at the intersection, according to Officer Kevin Hughes, a police spokesman.

The truck was attempting to pull into the parking lot of the Tara Discount Mall around 10:30 a.m., to deliver items to the Little Giant Food Market, when it struck the phone lines, said Hughes.

"As a result of that, a pole that was on Upper Riverdale Road snapped, and it struck a vehicle on Upper Riverdale Road," said Hughes. "There were no injuries to the driver of that car."

Hughes said there were also no injuries to the driver of the tractor-trailer.

Some power lines were also affected by the incident, Hughes said, and there was a brief power outage. He said, however, that did not have information about which power customers were affected by the outage.

"The driver of the truck was not cited," said Hughes. "They're [authorities] not sure why the wires were hanging low." he said.

Hughes said a traffic camera on Upper Riverdale Road was damaged in the incident.

Vishnu Patel, the manager of a gas station at the corner of Tara Boulevard and Upper Riverdale Road, said, while the road was still blocked off, the incident was having a "big effect" on the business, and that his store was losing business.

"This time is a busy time, Monday morning," Patel said.