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Truck slams into SLO power pole, causes outage

April 14, 2015

A yellow pickup truck crashed into a San Luis Obispo power pole Monday afternoon, knocking out electricity in the area and trapping the driver inside the vehicle.

Around 4:22 p.m., the driver veered left, crossed two lanes of opposing traffic and hit the pole, according to the San Luis Obispo Police Department. The crash occurred on Johnson Avenue south of Ella Avenue.

The power pole sheared off at the base and fell on the vehicle. Power lines landed on top of the truck.

Fire personnel responded to the scene but had to wait as PG&E workers de-energized high voltage lines, according to the city fire department. The fire crews then extricated the driver from the truck.

The male driver received treatment for non life-threatening injuries at Sierra Vista hospital. The driver told police that he swerved to avoid a dog that ran in front of his truck.

The collision caused 2,736 customers in San Luis Obispo to lose power, according to PG&E representative John Lindsey’s Twitter feed. PG&E restored power to all of the affected customers by Tuesday evening.

An unrelated outage occurred Tuesday in Cambria causing 3,534 customers to lose power, according to Lindsay’s tweets. Power also returned in Cambria Tuesday evening.


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Folks, if a dog or cat or other critter runs in front of your car, don’t swerve to try to avoid it. Run it over. Remember the lady that caused a 5 car accident on Tank Farm Road because a squirrel ran in front of her car.


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It depends upon circumstances. A truly alert driver would be constantly aware of the traffic and road situation around so that he wouldn’t need to look again to make a decision about swerving. However, since a lot of drivers do not have that level or awareness, your generalization is probably valid.


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Was Pat Hedges the driver?


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As many do, I live close by and drive that stretch every day. To cross at least two lanes, while going uphill, over a curb and hit the pole with such impact, this guy had to be HAULING!


Dog story truthful or not, any vehicle could have stopped in time even with a swerve if not speeding up the hill toward Bishop.


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Our power was out for less than an hour (if that).


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Since I’m commenting on another wreck today (five articles back, about Morro Bay moratorium and sewer plant Jamie Irons Train Wreck), I’ll comment on this one also……


Glad his airbags and other features prevented life threatening injuries, and kudos to PG&E that keeps the power coming back no matter how often us clod motorists MOW DOWN their distribution facilities! Good job PG&E and city fire!


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