Truck accident brings down power lines on passing car

Staff report

Youngstown

Santa Claus got more than he bargained for while advertising for pizzas outside Little Milly’s on South Avenue.

Stephen Echols Jr. said he was standing outside the pizzeria dressed as Santa about 2:30 p.m. Friday when a tractor-trailer hit a utility pole behind the business, sending electrical lines onto a car.

“He pulled up in the parking lot across the street and got out of the truck, it looked like to check something,” Echols said. “All of a sudden I heard a big boom, and I ran inside to call 911.”

Sgt. Brian Butler of the Youngstown Police Department said the truck driver parked the vehicle in the parking lot of Rainbow Muffler at the corner of South and Indianola avenues and didn’t properly set the parking brake before he got out.

“He thought the brake was set — it wasn’t — and the truck rolled across into the utility pole,” Butler said.

The sergeant said a man driving a Cadillac turned onto Indianola in between the two parking lots seconds before the accident occurred.

“The poor fella in the car behind him,” Butler said. “He was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Charles Nisevich, of Campbell, the driver of the Cadillac, said that when he turned on Indianola, he saw the truck begin to roll forward but had no idea there was no one inside.

“I stopped to let him go, because I thought he was sliding,” Nisevich said. “But the truck just went straight, and the power lines came down on my car and sent out sparks for [about] 10 minutes.”

No one was injured in the accident, and Butler said the driver would be cited.