Big Rig Snaps Utility Pole on Euclid Ave.

An 18-wheeler snagged power lines shortly after noon today on Euclid Avenue, near Haddon Avenue, snapping a wooden utility pole, pulling down live wires and closing the street to traffic.

The driver of the rig sat calmly on the steps of a nearby business shortly after 2 p.m., still waiting for PSE&G workers to cut the power to the lines and help free his tractor-trailer.

"I come around the curb and the wires were on the top," said the driver, who declined to give his name. "I didn't see no wires. I heard something snapping and that's it. That's what I saw."

The utility pole leaned precariously sideways across Euclid Avenue, between Haddon Avenue and Allen Avenue. It was splintered near the base, barely holding the pole up with wires pulled toward it from three locations on the block.

The driver works for Mario's Express trucking company of Edison, NJ. He said he had never been to Haddonfield. He was trying to make a deliver to the Centennial Square residential development.

His truck is 13-feet, 6-inches high, he said. The wires should have been higher, he reasoned. The front part of his trailer appeared to have been pried open by the wires which remained draped across the front of the truck two hours after the accident.

No injuries were reported and Haddonfield police had no immediate comment on the incident.