SEQUIM — Traffic signals and other lights from Port Angeles to Carlsborg went dark shortly after 7 a.m. Tuesday when a woman’s head-on crash with a power pole cut off electricity to 10,377 Clallam County Public Utility District customers for an hour.
The driver, Christina Ruiz, 23, of Sequim, was treated at the scene by Clallam County Fire District No. 3 emergency services personnel and was given a ride home by someone who came and picked her up, said Sgt. John Hollis of the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office.
PUD spokesman Mike Howe said power was shut down to customers from just east of the Port Angeles city limit to Carlsborg from about 7:12 a.m. until power was restored at 8:11 a.m. to all but 63 customers.
Power to the remaining connections was restored at 9:58 a.m., Howe said in an email.
The power loss, which affected about one-third of PUD customers, is the most widespread this year and “certainly ranks up there” as one of the more serious experienced by the PUD, Howe said.
Hollis said the crash occurred in the 1700 block of Kitchen-Dick Road north of Old Olympic Highway near a Weyerhaeuser Co. tree farm.
Ruiz, driving a 2007 Hyundai, sheared the power pole in two, leaving most of it dangling from overhead wires, Hollis said.
“There was deep impact into the engine compartment,” Hollis said.
Ruiz told authorities she fell asleep while driving and woke up too late to avoid plowing into the pole.
Ruiz will be issued an infraction for driving with wheels off the roadway, Hollis said.
He said there was no evidence alcohol or drugs were involved.
“She just got off the graveyard shift,” Hollis said.
Hollis would not comment on where Ruiz is employed.
Howe said PUD headquarters and Greywolf Elementary School were blacked out during the outage, as were traffic lights in the approximately 14-mile outage area from Port Angeles to Carlsborg.
Hollis said the most traffic congestion occurred where a multitude of traffic signals in the urban growth area stretch from the Port Angeles city limit east to East Kolonels Way.
Vehicles were backed up to the east at the Morse Creek curve, he said, but there were no collisions reported as morning-traffic drivers patiently alternated their progress at intersections.
“People were doing a good job of stopping and going,” Hollis said.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
