Wires

Something interesting happened today at my apartment. I was sitting at my computer around 3pm when I heard a loud bang and the power went out. I looked outside and saw a car had run into the power pole on the corner. I went outside and called 911. The power pole had been broken in two places with a piece under the car and the rest leaning over the car. A transformer had fallen and bounced off the side of the car and ended up on the sidewalk.

Luckily, the driver was okay. She walked away and looked fine. An ambulance eventually took her to the hospital but it was likely just a precaution. I don’t know the cause of the accident. There weren’t any other cars, people, or skip marks. It looks like she swerved, jumped the curb, and hit the pole.

The crews from PGE were great. They had a new pole up and the power restored within five hours. Once they started, it was quick getting the car out and the old pole upright. They pulled out the stump, augared the hole deeper, and puller the new pole upright. Most of the time was spent moving the cables and wires over to the new pole. A piece of the old pole is suspended next to the old one. It has wires attached and I guess it can’t be removed until those are moved.

One cool thing is that I got to meet my neighbors in the apartment building. Some ran outside after the accident; the rest arrived home later. We were hanging around outside watching the PGE crews put up the new pole. I guess it is good something interesting happened at home because today was my company’s picnic and I would have felt really silly to have completely forgotten it and just saw at home boringly.

[![](/photostack/storage/normal-powerpole-p8201337_m.jpg.jpg)](/photostack/powerpole/)