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THIS STORY HAS BEEN UPDATED WITH INFORMATION ABOUT A POWER OUTAGE.
LUCERNE, Calif. – A semi passing through the Northshore town of Lucerne early Monday afternoon overturned and hit a power pole, an incident that is resulting in an hours-long closure of the highway and a temporary power shutdown.
The California Highway Patrol reported that the single-vehicle crash occurred just after 12 p.m. on Highway 20 at Sixth Avenue near the Lake County Sheriff’s substation.
According to initial reports the semi’s driver was not speeding, but as he drove through a slight curve in the road his heavy load of metal materials shifted, leading to the truck overturning.
A Lake County News reporter at the scene said the truck rolled into a power pole, snapping the pole and causing the power lines to fall into nearby trees.
Northshore Fire Deputy Chief Pat Brown said the driver suffered minor injuries – a cut on his head and scrapes – and refused medical transport at the scene.
Along with Northshore Fire, CHP, Caltrans, AT&T and PG&E responded to the crash site on Monday afternoon.
Pacific Gas & Electric was to bring in their own traffic control later in the afternoon and will begin repairing the pole, officials reported.
Brown said they are bringing in a loader to move the truck’s load in order to let PG&E access the damaged pole.
Shortly before 2 p.m., Brown estimated that Highway 20 would be closed for up to five hours as repairs are made. Traffic will be routed around the crash site and onto Country Club Drive.
Power in a portion of Lucerne also is off to allow PG&E to conduct repairs.
Kyle Woodard, a lineman for PG&E, said they were able to isolate the outage area.
While originally it had been estimated that an outage would extend from Ceago to Glenhaven, Woodard said the power was taken offline from Seventh Avenue east along Highway 20 to Bell Ray Avenue.
Lucerne residents in that area should be prepared for a long outage; Woodward said power is expected to be restored on Tuesday.
Willits Towing arrived with two tow trucks, including a heavy duty semi tow truck that is the biggest truck of its kind north of Santa Rosa, according to company owner Mason Cook.
“We’re ready to pull it over just as soon as they give us the word,” he said of the overturned truck.
Lake County News will continue to update the story and post Facebook and Twitter updates as information becomes available.
John Jensen contributed to this report.
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