The GFL Environmental garbage truck driver, whose vehicle ripped down utility wires and blocked a key downtown Charlottesville intersection this past Wednesday, will not be charged.
The wires were hanging too low, according to Charlottesville police spokesman Kyle Ervin.
Moreover, Ervin told The Daily Progress, “The driver remained in the area to give his information.”
Initially reported by a fellow motorist as a hit-and-run, the garbage truck destroyed one utility pole, one streetlight and rendered the intersection of East Water Street and Second Street Southeast impassible to vehicles for the duration of Wednesday’s daylight hours.
The pole’s owner is Brightspeed, a Charlotte, North Carolina-based telecom firm and the successor to CenturyLink, which itself was a successor to Embarq and Centel, prior providers of telecom services in the Charlottesville area.
The precise cause of the incident was a hot topic Wednesday, the day that motorists were U-turning for several hours before detour signs finally appeared later that afternoon.
As the shutdown continued, competing theories jostled for supremacy: a too-low wire, a too-tall truck and steeply angled conduit were the leading contenders among passersby. And while the Charlottesville Police Department may have moved on, Brightspeed alleges the investigation is “ongoing.” And GFL Environmental, the Canadian-based operator of the truck, isn’t talking — at least not to The Daily Progress.
Before referring further questions to the Charlottesville police, a Brightspeed representative noted that, in addition to its own wires, two other utilities had wires at that site.
At dusk Wednesday, a contracted crew in bucket trucks was repairing the overhead utility system. The traffic barricades remained in place until around 7 a.m. Thursday.
Earlier, Charlottesville’s most visible pedestrian advocate, Kevin Cox, the man arrested in May for chalking a crosswalk near the site of a pedestrian death, held court.
“Deciding liabilities is probably going to be an issue,” Cox told The Daily Progress. “Is it GFL? Is it Brightspeed?” he asked. “Or is it the city for failing to properly regulate the telecommunications businesses?”
In the weeks leading up to the incident, Cox had been making a push for utilities to get loose wires and duplicative poles off of Charlottesville sidewalks. While the city manager fired off a stern letter reminding Richmond-based Dominion Energy, the largest public utility in the state, to tidy up, Cox contends that Wednesday’s incident shows how much more remains to be done.
“The city has been very slack,” he said. “You can see evidence of this all over the place with down cables and wires in the way.”
Source: www.dailyprogress.com
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