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A day after a dump truck and Toyota sedan collided on Littleton Road, trapping a driver and damaging a National Grid pole, a building containing multiple businesses still had no electrical power.
The businesses at 254 Littleton Road in Westford remained without power late on the afternoon of Oct. 7 as a crew of electricians replaced underground wires. The wires were located at the base of a National Grid pole that had been installed to replace the damaged one.
The serious accident that occurred at about 11:45 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 6 left its impact on the local economy, tying up traffic and damaging wires that supplied electrical power to numerous businesses along Littleton Road. The sedan ended up wedged under the dump truck and the trapped driver required extrication by Westford firefighters. The eastbound lane remained closed until after 6 p.m. on Oct. 6 while National Grid workers replaced the pole.
The midday incident caught the attention of all the local broadcast media outlets.
The next day on Oct. 7 workers from Village Electrical of Chelmsford were repairing underground wires. The National Grid workers would be returning to the site to turn on the power to the building after they completed their work, the electricians said. Businesses inside the building at 254 Littleton Road include Westford Custom Floors, Forever Beautiful Skin Care, and Heart of the Dove, an alternative medicine provider.
Among the businesses that lost power immediately after the accident was the butcher shop, Meat Again, at 1 Lan Drive. Shop owner Christopher O’Brien said the power remained out until 4:30 p.m. on Oct. 6 and his business sustained a loss of approximately $3,000 in sales. O’Brien said he based the amount on previous weekend sales when the weather was also warm and conducive for outdoor cookouts.
“We had to empty all the front end cases and put (the meat) in a cooler,” said O’Brien. The cooler is a walk-in refrigerator that continued to operate through the use of a generator, he added.
In the same plaza on Lan Drive, Bamboo Fine Asian Cuisine and Sushi Bar also lost power on the day of the accident. Manager David Co estimated that the restaurant lost about $3,000 in sales because traffic on Fridays for the luncheon buffet is typically brisk. The buffet food was all discarded, Co said, and an inspector from the town’s Board of Health arrived to make sure no food was being served.
“We had no gas, no phone, no power,” he said. “We couldn’t do anything at all. We couldn’t cook.”
Westford Police Capt. Victor Neal said a preliminary investigation indicated the Toyota driver, heading westbound, was attempting to turn left into the parking area at 254 Littleton Road and cut off the dump truck, causing it to roll on top of the front of the car and crunching it. The Toyota driver was taken to a hospital with serious injuries to his lower body, Neal said.
Littleton Road, also known as Route 110, is a major state road that is known as Westford’s business corridor, connecting the town to Chelmsford to the east and Littleton to the west.
Neal said the accident remains under investigation.
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