A semitrailer driving down Ninth Street near the intersection of Hayes Avenue hit a cable wire at about 1:30 p.m. Thursday causing it to fall and damage a passing car.

Nick Fonseca, a senior communication studies major, said he was driving down Ninth Street in the opposite direction of the semitrailer when the top of the trailer caught the wire and took it down.

“(The trailer) hit it and it started sparking,” he said.

Fonseca said he then turned down a side street to get away from the wire after it hit his car and took off a portion off the spoiler.

Lt. Matt MacDonald of the Charleston Fire Department said what fell was a Mediacom cable TV wire, not a power line, so it had very low voltage and was not dangerous.

He said the voltage in the wire was what caused it to spark, even though the voltage was minimal.

MacDonald said it appeared as though a bolt from the wire popped off causing it to hang lower than usual.

Officer Kent Jones of the University Police Department said he was unsure if the wire was hanging low, but he agreed that was likely the case.

“It would have had to have been (hanging lower) because normally they are high enough,” Jones said.

Jones also said, as the Mediacom workers were moving the fallen wire without protective gloves on, it was low voltage and not an immediate danger.

Dustin Furry, a Mediacom worker at the scene repairing the wire, said they were removing the thin metal lashing wires, which had become loose, and rerunning them through the the thick black cable that carries the signals. They were also working to hook the wire back onto the nearby poles.

Police redirected traffic around the area until the wire was repaired.

Stephanie Markham can be reached at 581-2812 or samarkham@eiu.edu.