Part of Center Avenue was shut down Tuesday afternoon for several hours after a box truck struck a utility pole.

Richard McKinney, 52, of Pittsburgh said he was parking his truck in a metered space in the 300 block of the street when the front passenger side of his truck hit the pole about 12:15 p.m. The impact caused the pole to lean, lowering the power line down across the road.

Seconds later, a tractor-trailer driven by William Knepp, 60, of Tiona, Warren County, hit the lowered wires, pulling the sheared utility pole down on the box truck.

The road was closed between the Fairview Avenue and South Monroe Street intersections late into the evening while crews cleaned up the wires and replaced the pole.

McKinney said he was rushing to park his vehicle after making a delivery to the Capco Paper Co. at the corner of Center Avenue and South Monroe Street.

“I had to move it (from the corner) so I could fill out my paperwork and set my GPS for the next stop,” he said. “My right front corner hit the pole when I was parking.”

McKinney thought at first he just struck his mirror against the pole.

“I went to lean out to look at it and that's when the (tractor trailer) came down and hit the wires,” he said.

Knepp, who was driving to Warren after making a delivery in Cabot, said he never saw the lowered wires.

“I never saw them, but I heard them,” he said, referencing the impact. “But it was a little too late by that time.”

McKinney said he jumped out of his vehicle after seeing sparks fly. Knepp, a former volunteer firefighter, said he knew better than to take the risk as his truck was still tangled in the power lines.

Butler Fire Chief Nick Ban said people should never leave a vehicle when it is in contact with possibly live wires.

“Never get out of the vehicle,” he stressed.

Ban warned people can create a “grounded” situation if they step onto the ground and come in contact with the car and run the risk of electric shock or electrocution.

“Electricity takes the least path of resistance,” Ban said. “Sometimes that can be a person.”

Rhonda Tyson of Butler Township witnessed the accident from the parking lot across the street.

“There were sparks everywhere,” she said.

Tyson, who was making a trip to a bank, said impatient drivers continued to drive under and around the wires until emergency vehicles arrived and closed the road.

“People did not want to turn around,” Tyson said while still blocked in the parking lot by hanging wires.

An elderly woman who tried to drive through the wires had her windshield cracked by a fallen power line, Ban said. The fire chief warned drivers should never attempt to maneuver under or around fallen wires.

West Penn Power arrived just after 1 p.m. to shut off power.

The accident caused two buildings along the block to temporarily lose power, Ban said.