Printable VersionA truck transporting a backhoe/excavator snagged telephone and cable lines that snapped three power poles and brought down live power lines Monday near North El Dorado and South Kiowa avenues.
 Submitted Photo The arm of a tract backhoe/excavator being hauled on the back of a trailer snags telephone and cable lines and snaps three power poles Monday afternoon near North El Dorado and South Kiowa avenues. The incident caused outages to all three services. |
The snag caused three Unisource Energy Services poles to snap, bringing down live power lines on top of homes in that area. The energy company responded with two crews of eight workers and a digging crew, said Bill DeJulio, UES general manager of electrical operations.
DeJulio said power had been restored to most of 100 affected customers.
About 80 of the 100 customers should have had power restored by 5 p.m. Monday; however, the extent of the damage may cause the remaining 20 customers to wait several hours longer, DeJulio wrote in a press release.
About 3,000 cable customers on the north side of Havasu were expected to be without phone and Internet services for an unknown amount of time, said NPG Director Donna Baker.
“It is hard to tell (when service will be restored). It will happen when Unisource gets the poles set. We are most concerned for our customers, to get their service returned to them,” Baker said Monday.
Baker said 10-15 NPG workers are expected remain on scene until services are repaired.
An unknown number of customers were left without telephone services. Attempts to reach Frontier were unsuccessful.
Lake Havasu City Fire Department responded to the accident.
“We are really lucky (the downed lines) didn’t hurt or kill somebody … (the driver) is lucky he didn’t get electrocuted,” said Battalion Chief Mike Quijada.
The fire department remained on scene for more than two hours until hazards surrounding the downed lines were mitigated, Quijada said.
Thirty members of the Lake Havasu City Community Emergency Response Team arrived to provide traffic control at four locations during the incident, the battalion chief said.
Lake Havasu City Police Department had two traffic units to provide traffic control. The two were relieved from their posts after CERT arrived, he said.
Lake Havasu City Police Sgt. Joe Harrold and Senior Officer Joe Murdock said the accident is still under investigation and that charges are pending.
You may contact the reporter at jhanson@havasunews.com.
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