For second time in a day, vehicle downs utility pole in Huntington area
Dominion Virginia Power crews work Saturday morning to restore power after a vehicle destroyed a utility poll.
Update: Power was restored to call customers around 4:30 p.m., and all lanes of Richmond Highway were reopened around the same time according to Dan Genest, a spokesman for Dominion Virginia Power. Genest said the long repair time was due amount of damage done by the crash.
“It was a mess in terms of damage to our equipment,” Genest said.
Genest noted that a new pole needed to be delivered, cut to size and installed, and the five cross arms needed to be attached to the pole before the rehanging of the wires could begin. Genest also said that some underground work was needed.
Original story: Power is still out for some corridor residents after a sport utility vehicle went off the road on southbound Richmond Highway last night and took down a utility pole.
The crash happened around 11:30 p.m. near the intersection of Mount Eagle Drive and Route 1. It’s unclear if anyone was injured in the wreck, or if the driver faces charges.
The impact completely took out the utility pole, and power went out from Huntington all the way to the Groveton area for more than an hour. Many homes and businesses farther south of the accident had power restored by 2 a.m., but as of 1:30 p.m. today, Dominion Virginia Power was reporting that 128 customers were still without service in the Huntington/Belle Haven area.
Power is expected to be restored sometime before 6 p.m., according to the Dominion website.
Only one lane of southbound Richmond Highway was getting by between Huntington Avenue and Mount Eagle Drive today because of the repair work.
Friday night’s crash marked the second time in less than 24 hours that a vehicle collision with a utility pole had caused headaches in the Huntington area.
Around 3:30 a.m. on Friday, a car slammed into a pole in the 2600 block of Huntington Avenue, taking down a pole and wires not far from the intersection of Telegraph Road. It took more than 12 hours for all repair work to be completed, although the majority of customers in the area had power back approximately an hour after the crash, according to Dominion Virginia Power.
You ask how likely it is.
With the number of drivers texting while (theoretically) driving on Rte 1 — highly likely.
That’ certainly a possibility. I have not been able to confirm with police yet, but a witness who was at the scene just afterward told me that it appeared the driver was speeding. Apparently the power pole was sheered right in half.