Passaic Avenue, Clinton Road Fully Re-Opened

After about 12 hours, Passaic Avenue and Clinton Road were both fully re-opened Friday afternoon after a dump truck that was part of Essex County's repaving project took out a utility pole overnight, shutting down West Caldwell roadways in the area all morning.

Passaic Avenue was re-opened in both directions at about noon and vehicles were back on Clinton Road at about 1 p.m.

The accident, which occurred shortly after midnight, snapped the pole on the northeast side of the Passaic Avenue-Clinton Road intersection. It caused the closure of Clinton Road at Fairfield Avenue, Passaic Avenue at Bloomfield Avenue, Passaic Avenue at Fairfield Avenue and Clinton Road at Sanford Avenue for the entire morning.

According to West Caldwell Police Chief Michael Bramhall, his department accrued a significant amount of overtime that will be billed to the contracting company.

The driver of the truck, Ciodoaldo Almeida, 52, of Bronx, N.Y., is an employee of North Arlington-based S&J Trucking, a sub-contracting company for Clifton-based English Paving Co., Bramhall said.

According to West Caldwell Fire Chief Charles Holden, the driver sustained minor injuries in the crash, but was able to walk to the ambulance on his own power before the West Essex First Aid Squad transported him to Mountainside Hospital for observation.

"It was a chaotic scene," said Holden, who arrived at the scene with his crew at about 12:45 a.m. "It was a lot of damage caused by one vehicle. The operator of the dump truck was distributing asphalt into the asphalt spreader going south on Passaic Avenue. For whatever reason, it appeared he did not lower the body of his truck—whether he couldn't, I don't know—and snapped the pole."

Holden said the fire department was on the scene for approximately an hour and assisted in securing the area along with helping PSE&G identify the lines impacted from the crash. According to Holden, the truck knocked out cable and some telephone lines, but all electrical lines remained intact.

Essex County Vocational Technical School, a short distance away from the scene at 620 Passaic Ave., did not open Friday, Bramhall said.