By Angeljean Chiaramida
Staff writer
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SALISBURY — A one-car accident on Beach Road yesterday morning flooded the police dispatch center with so many 911 calls it froze the system temporarily and ended up backing up traffic in and out of Salisbury Square for more than an hour.
Salisbury firefighter David Doyle said that the department received the call on the accident from police dispatch at 8:22 a.m. and upon reaching the scene at 135 Beach Road found a 2005 Pontiac GT on its roof after hitting a utility pole. The car had snapped it, bringing wires down across the road.
Doyle said the driver — the only person in the vehicle — was not injured and was not transported to the hospital.
Police Lt. Kevin Sullivan said that the driver, Dorothy Avery, 48, of 17 Beaumont Road, Methuen, was traveling westbound on Beach Road (Route 1A) and became distracted.
"She said she was fixing the contact lens in her eye and went off the road and hit the pole," Sullivan said. "The pole came down and brought heavy phone lines across the road. They were telephone lines going into the Windgate (condominium complex)."
Sullivan said although National Grid responded to the scene, no electric lines were involved, and power was not lost.
The accident quickly affected traffic, clogging Salisbury Square and its feeder roads, including Route 110 eastbound, which backed up all the way past Connie's Stagecoach.
On a nice Friday when everyone wants to get to the beach, police were busy at the site, and the scene wasn't cleared completely until 10 a.m., Sullivan said.
The accident is still under investigation, but Sullivan said no charges are expected to be brought against Avery at this time.
