Semi Truck's Crash Into Pole Knocks Out Power For 500 Customers

EL CAJON, CA — A semi truck sheared a fire hydrant and crashed into a power pole Thursday morning in El Cajon, causing an outage that left more than 500 customers without power, police said.

The crash was reported shortly before 6 a.m. in the 1100 block of Vernan Way, El Cajon police Lt. Keith MacArthur said.

The truck's driver took a turn too tight then sheared a fire hydrant and slammed into a power pole, knocking power lines down in the roadway, MacArthur said.

No injuries were reported.

The crash caused an outage that initially left 521 San Diego Gas & Electric customers without power in the El Cajon and Fletcher Hills areas, according to an SDG&E online outage map.

As of 7:30 a.m., power had been restored to all but 42 customers and those customers were expected to have power restored by 3 p.m. Thursday, according to SDG&E.

Police shut down Vernon Way between Cuyamaca Street and Marshall Avenue for the crash clean-up. Cuyamaca Street was also closed between Bradley Avenue and Fletcher Parkway.

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--City News Service