HOPE — A driver was stuck in a car for approximately 30 minutes while waiting for the electrical company to arrive and cut power to a portion of Hatchet Mountain Road in Hope Sunday evening. 

At approximately 3:10 p.m., Dec. 10, 2023, just prior to the beginning rain showers of an all-night rain and wind storm, the vehicle left the roadway, between house numbers 868 and 876, and plowed through a utility pole. With wires from the pole laying over the vehicle, the driver could only roll down the driver’s side window in order to talk to arriving personnel from the Knox County Sheriff’s Office, Hope Fire Department, and North East Mobile Health. 

The driver was uninjured, but the car was totaled. 

The rain, which had started at a trickle around 2:45 p.m. when temperatures held at 50 degrees, grew into a steady downpour soon after emergency workers established themselves on scene. Dense fog had settled in some areas, which was predicted for the storm. The high winds, with gusts predicted to clock speeds in the 50s and 60s, were not yet noticed.

All Directions hauled the vehicle away while linesmen from Central Maine Power worked quickly to erect a new pole and reattach wires. 

The road was back open by 5:35 p.m.

Though overcast midday in Knox County brought pedestrians outdoors with the seasonably warm temperatures, they also brought a few motor vehicle issues as well. Among possible other calls that went unheard by the Pen Bay Pilot, St. George Fire Department and Rescue were called to a single-vehicle crash on River Road after vehicle went off the road and was damaged. Later on in the day, they were called to Spruce Head Road for a vehicle on its side. Neither crash produced injuries to humans, but at least one utility pole suffered the consequences of the day.