Published: October 16, 2009 12:22 pm      

Accident causes Thursday power outage

Parts of the city were without power early Thursday evening after a vehicle struck a utility pole at the intersections of Lindsay and Modrall Streets near Elliot Electric Supply and the Bomber Bait building.

The accident knocked out power from Dixon Street north to U.S. Highway 82 and south as far as a city services building and the water treatment plant on South Weaver Street, according to Oncor Area Manager Sabrina Taylor.

“It wasn’t a real lengthy outage,” Taylor said in a telephone interview Friday morning. “I think power was out almost an hour.”

Taylor also said the damaged pole contains a device which allows Oncor technicians to switch power from one section of the city to another “in the event of an outage.”

Workers plan to finish the repairs today, she added.

“We’re going to change the pole today. We made it stable yesterday and restored power in two stages. Now, we’ll be replacing it,” she said.

Residents may notice some momentarily blinks and twitches in their electrical service during the repair, but the glitches are nothing to worry about, she assured.

“If the power blinks during the day, it’s just a sign that the repair is underway,” she said.

The damage to the pole was fairly extensive, according to witnesses.

the pole reportedly broke off at its base on impact and ended up suspended by wires above a building.

The vehicle also hit a parked 2008 Chevy Silverado pickup truck.

“From what I saw, I don’t know if he stopped at the stop sign or not, he was going too fast. He weaved around me, hit the pole and hit the truck. He got out of his truck holding his heart.” said Jeremy Robertson, a witness who said he saw the accident.

Robertson said it looked like the driver was calling 911 as he got out of the wrecked vehicle.

An ambulance arrived quickly, he noted.

Dave Weaver, owner of the Silverado struck by the pickup truck and an employee at Elliot Electric Supply said, “I was sitting at the desk, heard the screech, saw a truck fly by, then heard the boom. Then power went off and everybody came out of the building.”

He said he heard some loud pops and saw arcing from the pole wires.

Weaver said he heard the driver saying, “My heart, I need my heart medicine.”

He speculated that the driver was probably going about 50 miles per hour. “Maybe he hit the gas instead of the brake.”

Weaver said an ambulance arrived in about three minutes.

Another witness said the driver was lying on the sidewalk waiting for the ambulance.

Various emergency responders were at the scene to block off the area as Oncor Electric Delivery worked to restore power.

Reporter Pamela Robinson contributed to this report.