NORWAY — Bad winter roads are well known to cause damage to vehicles — not to mention driver’s nerves — but an incident Tuesday on Route 117 might set a new bar for horror stories about road conditions this year.
Around 12:20 p.m., Leroy Edwards of Harrison was hauling almost 30 tons of wood chips from a wood lot in Harrison to the ReEnergy biomass plant in Livermore Falls when he drove over an especially nasty divot running across the road.
Edward said he heard a crunching sound as he crossed the broken asphalt, and looked back to see the trailer body folding in on itself like an accordion.
“I said, ‘This isn’t good, I’d better get to the side of the road,'” he recalled.
He was able to steer the trailer to the side of the road while it slowly crumpled onto its landing gear, stopping less than 200 yards from the intersection with Gore Road.
“That’s one load that isn’t going to get there today,” Edwards said as he looked at a stricken trailer. In 40 years of driving trucks, it was the first time he’s ever seen something like that happen, he said.
“It’s been a rough winter,” he attested.
No one was injured and Edwards said there was no damage to the truck owned by Bridgton-based Rolfe Corp.
None of the wood chips were spilled. Traffic slowed while members of Norway Fire Department and Norway Police Department directed vehicles around the trailer.
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- A trailer loaded with 30 tons of wood chips sits beside Route 117 in Norway after it hit a frost heave and buckled Tuesday afternoon.
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- Workers from Rolfe Corp. in Bridgton take stock of damage to a trailer full of wood chips that buckled after going over a frost heave on Route 117 in Norway on Tuesday.
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