By Signal Staff
A pickup truck caused a widespread power outage Thursday night when it crashed into a pole near the intersection of Sierra Highway and Golden Valley Road, leaving more than 20,000 Santa Clarita Valley customers without power, according to first responders and Southern California Edison.
Within an hour of the crash, all but approximately 2,000 customers had their power restored and Edison crews had been dispatched for repairs, according to an Edison spokesman. Shortly after that, Edison reported that fewer than 100 remained without power.
“A truck hit a pole and wires were down, and it caused a power outage,” Lt. Michael Politano of the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station said Thursday night.
Politano said that, according to initial reports, it was a non-injury crash.
The incident was first reported to the Los Angeles County Fire Department at 9:12 p.m. Thursday. The crash scene itself was cleared by county firefighters by 9:48 p.m., according to the PulsePoint app.
Jeff Monford, corporate communications senior advisor at SoCal Edison, said that Edison was able to restore power to many customers almost immediately by re-routing nearby circuits.
“Most customers were restored by 9:12 p.m., within five minutes,” Monford said. “That’s due to switching the power flow to alternative circuits nearby.”
Shortly after that, Politano said deputies remained on the scene conducting their investigation into the crash.
Multiple social media platforms saw posts from users in widespread areas of the SCV. While the exact geographic footprint was not confirmed as of the publication of this story, those reports seemed to be generated from areas in Saugus through Canyon Country. One social media user on the Ring app reported being stuck in a drive-through car wash that had stopped working when the power went out.
Edison spokesman Scott Johnson said Thursday night that most users’ power was restored within an hour.
“Initially there were just over 22,000 customers affected, but as of 10 p.m. more than 20,000, or right at 20,000, have had their power restored, leaving just over 2,000 still without power,” Johnson said.
By 10:15 p.m. that number had been reduced to 74 customers still without power, Johnson said in a subsequent call.
As of Friday, only one customer was still without power, and Monford said Edison expected the repairs for that customer to be completed by 3:30 p.m.
