Emergency personnel examine the scene after parts of a bell in front of the Highland House Museum were damaged Wednesday for the second time in less than three months.
Jacob Clary | The Times-Gazette
Less than three months after it was a victim in a vehicle crash, a historic C.S. Bell Company bell in front of the Highland House Museum in Hillsboro was damaged again in a car accident Wednesday.
The Hillsboro Police Department said it received a call reporting the accident at 3:11 p.m. Wednesday. No citations have been filed as of Thursday afternoon because both drivers claimed to have a green light, the police department said.
A Jeep driven by Angela Lloyd, 53, of Peebles, was southbound on East Street at the same time an AEP truck driven by Christopher Powell, 38, of Seaman, was westbound on East Main Street. The truck T-boned the Jeep, knocking it off the road and into the bell in front of the Highland House, the police department said.
There was damage to the wheel that turns the bell, much like the damage from a Nov. 10 accident. That damage was repaired just it time for the bell’s annual ringing on New Year’s Eve.
During Wednesday’s crash, the police department said the AEP vehicle had a dash cam that was operating, and that footage was still being processed by AEP late Thursday afternoon.
So, no charges had been filed up to that time.
The police department said there were no injuries to the drivers in Wednesday’s crash.
It was a a man with a long criminal history fleeing police that led a vehicle to crash into the 48-inch bell on Nov. 10 last year. The bell was not damaged, but the anchor bolts holding the bell to its concrete base and the wooden wheel used to turn the bell so it can ring were.
According to longtime local historian Jean Wallis, the bell resided for many years in front of the C.S. Bell Foundry on Railroad Street in Hillsboro. It was donated to the Highland County Historical Society by Virginia Bell, who at one time rescued and operated the foundry.
Wallis said that during World War II the bell would be placed in the back of a truck and drove around Hillsboro trying to raise money for war bonds. She said that on Victory in Europe Day it was placed in a truck again and drove around while ringing to celebrate the end of the war.
The tradition of ringing the bell on New Year’s Eve started in 2013 after a suggestion by the late Pamela Nickell, according to Vicki Knauff, the current director of the museum.
Reach Jeff Gilliland at 937-402-2522.
