2.5 Hour Outage Knocked Out Hackettstown Traffic Lights: Police

HACKETTSTOWN, NJ — Traffic lights and a number of JCP&L customers lost power on Thursday for more than two hours, Hackettstown Police reported.

Sgt. Darren Tynan, a spokesperson for the department, told Patch that some businesses had no electricity on Thursday morning, with traffic lights out at Routes 57 and 182, as well as Route 182 and Mall Drive.

Officers were needed on the scene to help direct traffic, Tynan said, with JCP&L's outage map estimating up to 100 customers were without power because of the incident.

JCP&L cited "animal contact" on its map as the cause of the outage, though initially reporting it as "equipment damage" before crews arrived, with police first notifying social media and Nixle followers about it at 7:30 a.m.

Tynan told Patch he could not confirm an animal was the cause of the outage, saying police observed "wire over brush" at the scene.

Questions or comments about this story? Have a news tip? Contact me at: jennifer.miller@patch.com.