BELLEVUE, Iowa -- A truck driver faces a minor charge, but probably some hefty bills for damages, after he drove a logging truck with its boom arm up for about 12 miles Tuesday morning, snagging and snapping overhead electrical wires along the way.
Phillip Gary Mathews, 73, of Bernard, was red-faced when he realized what happened after Bellevue city workers frantically waved him to a stop before he entered the town proper, according to Deputy Steve Schroeder, a Jackson County Sheriff's Department investigator.
"He left La Motte after loading a flatbed with logs and forgot to lower the arm after strapping the logs down," Schroeder said. "He took out three Alliant Energy wires in town, three REC lines along the highway and two Bellevue Utility lines before they stopped him."
Mathews drove east from La Motte on Jackson County D-55 to U.S. 52, then south toward Bellevue on his way to Green Island.
Besides snapped power lines flapping, Mathews' misadventure resulted in broken utility poles and residential electrical wires yanked out of their connections.
"There was substantial damage, but thank God no one was hurt," Schroeder said.
Bellevue police and firefighters, Jackson County sheriff's deputies and workers from each of the affected power companies responded. There is no estimate on the total damage, Schroeder said.
