WOOD RIVER - A vehicle smashed and downed a utility line Wednesday night on Old St. Louis Road between West Ferguson and Madison Avenues, Wood River Police Chief Brad Wells reported on Thursday.
Chief Wells said the accident led to a power outage.
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Brian Bretsch, an American Illinois spokesperson, confirmed there was a power outage and said the pole damage took multiple hours to completely rectify.
A total of 1,369 customers in Wood River and two customers in East Alton suffered a power outage, Bretsch said.
"The vehicle struck a power pole and one wire fell into other ones and caused the power outage," Wells said. "We got there and there was damage to the cross arm on the pole. Crews were dispatched at 9:15 p.m. Thursday and were there for about an hour and were able to restore power to 834 customers by re-routing their power to a different substation. Another 384 customers were re-routed at 11:10 p.m. and that left us with 155 customers. The cross arm had to be repaired and everyone's power was turned back on at 5:15 a.m."
Chief Wells said the crash is still under investigation and was told the injuries were non-life-threatening to both involved.
