For motorists driving on Main Street in the late afternoon hours Monday, it would be understandable if a few did a double take while passing through the section that passes over Newton Creek near Green Street.
Was that a boat on the side of the road?
Folks weren’t seeing things. There was, in fact, a small boat that had become dislodged from a trailer and ended up on a sidewalk near a residence on the south side of the highway up against a Newton Creek bridge guardrail.
“The vehicle was headed eastbound on Main Street and the trailer actually rusted apart,” Philomath Chief of Police Dave Gurski said after gathering information from two of his department’s officers who were at the scene. “The safety chains that hook to the back of the trailer hitch mechanism — it sounds like that sheared off, broke and ended up dislodging the boat.”
The boat was registered in Washington state but information that police gathered indicates the owner is a Eugene resident.
“They ended up using a couple of tow trucks to pick the boat up, put it back on the trailer, strap the boat to the trailer and then loaded the whole thing up on a third tow truck,” Gurski said, the third tow truck being a flatbed.
Gurski said he feels like the situation could have been a lot worse if the boat hadn’t been dumped onto the sidewalk.
“It’s lucky that it didn’t go into the oncoming lane, otherwise, it could have been a little bit more serious,” Gurski said.
No citations were issued in connection with the incident.
Gurski said police were dispatched to the accident at 4:12 p.m. and the scene was cleared by about 6:39 p.m.