Traffic was jammed on Monroe Drive in northeast Atlanta early Monday after a garbage truck driver snagged a power line, pulling wires down on his truck and on the sidewalk.

Steve Bennett, a Georgia Power lineman who responded to the driver’s 6:30 a.m. call for help, said the driver, whose name has not been released, “told me that he snagged a wire coming out of the parking lot and it was tangled up in the truck when I got here.”

Bennett said the driver was still in the cab of the garbage truck when he arrived, “doing exactly what he was supposed to do, which is stay in the vehicle.”

“He was scared, but typically, as long as you stay in the vehicle, you will be safe,” he said.

“He said that the wire sparked when he hit it, and he did not know what was going on,” Bennett said. “I told him just to stay put and I’d take care of everything.”