Traffic Accident Leaves Residents Without Power

With temperatures climbing into the triple digits, it was a terrible time to lose power, but that's exactly what happened to thousands of residents in south Tulsa. A relatively minor traffic accident

Thursday, August 9th 2007, 8:46 pm

By: News On 6

With temperatures climbing into the triple digits, it was a terrible time to lose power, but that's exactly what happened to thousands of residents in south Tulsa. A relatively minor traffic accident caused a major inconvenience for thousands. The News On 6â€™s Ashli Sims reports Tulsa Police say the driver of a van clipped the truck in front of it and spun out of control, knocking out an 80-foot utility pole.

A tangled mess of splinters and lines includes a major feeder for a nearby substation.

"And then when that broke and lost power, all of these residents lost power as well. Hopefully, PSO will be able to get that fixed shortly,â€ said Tulsa Police Corporal Brett Bilyeu.

PSO says as many as 12,000 people lost power, at first. But they were able to redirect the grid and bring most of them back online. About 4,000 people, most of them living in the surrounding neighborhoods, were in the dark and the rising heat for hours.

There was no escaping the heat or the traffic. Officers shutdown Memorial to give PSO crews room to work and prevent any more accidents that would make the situation worse.

Cars piled up half a mile in each direction and had to be diverted through neighborhood streets. While residents weren't able to keep their cool, they did try to keep a sense of humor.

"We were ready to blame it on the PGA, but couldn't do that,â€ said resident Roy Osberghaus.

PSO says power has been restored to all but a handful of customers. Their latest numbers show up to 14,000 customers were affected at the blackout's peak.

Watch the video: Accident Causes Widespread Power Outage