PORT ANGELES — A pickup truck driver plowed into two electrical and communications poles in the 900 block of West Marine Drive in Port Angeles, blocking the thoroughfare for nearly 13 hours.
Steven J. Stoner, 39, of Port Angeles had a medical emergency and apparently lost consciousness before driving his 2015 Toyota Tacoma pickup into the poles, snapping them in two, after veering off the road while eastbound on West Marine Drive at 1:30 p.m. Friday, authorities said.
Lights flickered throughout Port Angeles, computers malfunctioned and electricity was cut to 100 mostly business customers in the industrial area for up to 10 hours, including Nippon Paper Industries USA, Public Works and Utilities Director Craig Fulton said Saturday.
At several businesses, false alarms went off.
Fulton said most of the electrical power customers, including Nippon — which has been in limited operation since mid-January — had service restored within two hours.
Marine Drive, in which both lanes were blocked, was fully opened to traffic by 2:15 a.m. Saturday.
Port Angeles Assistant Police Chief Jason Viada said Stoner was not seriously injured. He also said that neither drugs nor alcohol was involved.
“When we first arrived, he was disoriented and didn’t even know his name,” Viada said. “A medical event appears to have caused the collision.”
Officers, Viada said, “had to work around live power lines and rescue Stoner.”
Police Officer Mike Johnson and his partner, Officer J.J. Smith, were the first to arrive after Stoner’s vehicle stopped.
Johnson said Saturday that Stoner had lost consciousness while driving 35 mph and likely would have run into a cinderblock building had his progress not been slowed by the poles.
“The last thing he knew was, he was driving down Marine Drive,” Johnson said. “He has no memory of the collision.”
Johnson said Stoner was transported to Olympic Medical Center, treated and discharged.
The collisions damaged 69,000-volt and 13,000-volt transmission lines and a Wave cable and broadband company communications line, Fulton said.
Fulton said the 69,000-volt line feeds Nippon.
The company is not manufacturing paper while it awaits the final transfer of ownership to McKinley Paper Co., the American subsidiary of Mexico-based Bio Pappel, but it is running a cogeneration boiler, which produces electricity for sale.
“It knocked the mill completely offline,” mill manager Steve Johnson said Saturday morning in an email.
“We have been working for the last 18 hours to get back on line.
“The boiler is running and the turbine should be back on line this afternoon.”
A Wave company spokesperson could not be reached for comment.
Fulton said underground power lines also were pulled loose and a distribution box exploded.
Debris from the collisions was strewn over Marine Drive near the Boat Haven.
“You could feel the electricity on your skin,” Johnson said.
“Imagine feeling that super-static electricity like you can when you drag your feet on the carpet,” Johnson said. “I could feel all my hairs standing on end.
“What I could see was a brilliant blinding white light brighter than the sun that was glowing and humming at the top of the hanging pole.
“It definitely took me a minute to take into account what was occurring, then we started evacuating people.”
They included a driver and two people from a nearby business.
Drivers were asked to avoid Marine Drive west of Tumwater Truck Route after the mishap.
Hill Street near Ediz Hook was suggested as a detour route for drivers going to and leaving Coast Guard/Sector Field Office Port Angeles and the Nippon plant.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
A Port Angeles public utility worker walks through the scene where a pickup truck smashed through a power pole in the 900 block of Marine Drive in Port Angeles on Friday, disrupting power to portions of the city. (Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News)
