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LEBANON, ME - The Lebanon Rescue Department, Lebanon Fire Department and York County Sheriff's Department responded to a vehicle verse telephone pole accident on Saturday morning, February 27, 2010.

The accident was dispatched at 5:18 a.m. and was located on Champion Street in Lebanon.

"When rescue crews arrived on scene, they located a 2007 Kia Sportage into a telephone pole with the pole and wires down. The vehicle had heavy front end damage. The driver was evaluated on scene by Lebanon Rescue personnel but was not injured in the accident.

While responding to the above accident, Lebanon Fire Department Engine 2 - a 2006 International HME firetruck went off the road while trying to make it up a hill on TM Wentworth Road. The accident occurred around 5:50am.

"The preliminary information that we have was that the fire truck while responding to the accident could not make the hill as the roads were very slippery due to wet snow falling. The operator of the fire truck did everything he could to keep the truck on the road but it continued to slide down the hill. At one point, a 1996 Dodge pick-up truck with a plow that was traveling behind it was struck by the fire engine. The fire engine ended up with the back end into the ditch. The operator of the fire truck was not injured. The operator of the Dodge truck was later transported by ambulance to Frisbie Memorial Hospital in Rochester, NH." Assistant Chief Jason Cole added. "Even though road crews were out sanding and plowing, the hill was very slippery and the truck could not make it up completely. The roads were very slick and fortunately no one was seriously injured. We always encourage people not to drive on slick roads unless they really have to, but these emergency workers face dangers to help the public when they need us. They have to respond no matter how bad the weather conditions are."

The fire truck was inspected for damage at the fire station after the incident for safety and then placed back in service.

Milton Engine 3 responded to the initial accident scene to assist.

The male that was transported was a 39-year-old male from Lebanon, Maine. He was alone in the vehicle and was wearing his seatbelt. His truck received minor damage and was driven from the scene. The fire truck also received minor damage and once brought back onto the road by Hartfords Towing was driven from the scene.

The driver of the original vehicle (Kia Sportage) into the pole was a 21-year-old male from Rochester, NH. His vehicle had heavy front end damage and had to be towed from the scene.

Champion Street was closed from 5:19 a.m. until 9:40 a.m. when Central Maine Power removed the telephone pole and wires from the road. Lebanon Rescue personnel detoured traffic on both ends for the four hours the road was closed.

TM Wentworth Road was closed from about 6:10 a.m. until about 9:30 a.m.

While Central Maine Power (CMP) was enroute to the scene for the initial vehicle verse pole accident, they went off the road into a ditch on Champion Street around 7:00 a.m. They had slowed to let an emergency vehicle go by them and then slid on the icy roads. Hartford truck towing removed them at 8:50 a.m. and they then continued to the original accident.

In addition, a plow truck that was plowing and sanding in the area went off the road on Prospect Hill Road. No one was injured.

In addition to the original vehicle into a pole, the fire truck, the dodge truck, the CMP truck and the plow truck, seven additional vehicles went off in the stretch of road between the hill where the fire truck went off the road and the original accident, which is a couple mile stretch. A total of twelve vehicles went off the road in the general area.

The road crews were out sanding and plowing, but they have a lot of area to cover and it was snowing hard and mixing with sleet. It was very slippery. Fortunately out of all the vehicles that went off the road, no one was seriously injured in the accidents.