Photo by Lorne Abugov
Mainstreeter Staff
A downed Rogers Communications cable suspended chest-high across Main Street between Mason Terrace and Bower Street left hundreds of Old Ottawa East residents without internet service for several hours on July 17th and caused a rare traffic snarl along normally placid side streets includingMutchmor, McGillivray and McNaughton.
Responding to a 9-1-1 call from a Main Street resident who observed the fallen overhead cable, Ottawa police cordoned off both sides of the busy thoroughfare at around 5:30 pm on a steamy Friday afternoon, forcing southbound vehicles to turn either east through the Brantwood Gates or west along Bower Street. Northbound vehicles were routed along Mason Terrace. Residents in the area were kept busy directing bewildered motorists unfamiliar with the twisting street pattern in the quiet pocket between the Cuban Embassy and Echo Drive.
According to several witnesses, including the driver of a northbound #55 OC Transpo bus which braked safely directly in front of the fallen cable, the accident resulted when a large southbound construction vehicle clipped the overhead cable, dragging it down in the process. Apparently unaware, the driver of the vehicle continued southbound leaving dangling wires in his wake.
In addition to the cable strewn across Main Street, several cables running north and south along the eastern side of Main Street along a span beginning midway between Mason and Bower and extending to the Brantwood Gates were dragged down along sidewalks, posing a hazard to pedestrians until Ottawa police arrived on the scene to cordon off the one block stretch.
Internet service to Rogers subscribers in the neighbourhood was restored within two hours of the accident.
