Crime & Safety

Driver Fell Asleep in Crash That Closed Road

The crash that caused the closure of Route 1A on Thursday morning was caused by a driver falling asleep at the wheel.

The driver of a pickup truck that smashed through an utility pole early Thursday morning on Route 1A in Wenham escaped unharmed. He did not require medical attention and was not taken to the hospital.

The crash closed about a half mile stretch of Route 1A at the peak of the morning commute.

The Dodge pickup was headed southbound at about 5 a.m. when the driver said he fell asleep, according to Wenham Police Officer Shane Kavanagh.

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Nobody else was in the pickup truck and no other vehicles were involved in the crash, Kavanagh said. The name of the driver was not immediately available.

The first pole that the truck struck snapped in half. The pole held wires that crossed Route 1A near the intersection of Larch Row, and those wires were hanging too low after the crash to allow a tractor-trailer or other large vehicle to pass underneath.

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Three poles south of the snapped pole, the truck also struck a pole but that pole remained in tact.

The snapped pole and low-hanging wires forced police to close the road to traffic until repairs could be made. At first, the closure ran for a three-quarter mile stretch of Main Street, from Arbor Street to Linden Street. At about 7 a.m., the closure was narrowed to a half-mile section from Perkins Street to Linden Street, near the Hamilton town line.

Kavanagh said one lane of Route 1A could be reopened once National Grid crews raise the low-hanging wires up.


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