More than 260 without power in Kent after car slams into utility pole
KENT, Wash. — Hundreds were without power in Kent early Tuesday morning after a car crashed into a utility pole.
The crash happened just before 2:30 a.m. Tuesday near 4th Avenue and West James Street. The intersection is located a couple of blocks east of the accesso ShoWare Center and about a block north of Kent Station.
Nearly 270 customers in the area near the crash were without power around 10:20 a.m., according to Puget Sound Energy (PSE). Power is estimated to be restored around 4:30 p.m. Tuesday. PSE listed “accident” as the cause of 218 of the outages, while “equipment failure” was listed as the cause of 49 of the outages in the area.
The city of Kent tweeted around 9:40 a.m. Tuesday that Kent, King County and Valley Com 911 were “experiencing a network outage impacting multiple business systems, including our utility billing portal and phone lines.” The city said PSE crews were at the scene of the crash and working to repair the damaged utility pole.
"The telephone pole was on fire, and there were lines out there that were hot, so nobody could get around it to put it out," said resident Debra Zacher, who was asleep in her home a few yards from the crash.
Zacher said she witnessed several people climb out of a minivan after the crash, including at least one child.
Sound Transit (ST) posted an alert around 5:30 a.m. saying Kent Station was without power and that ticket machines were offline. ST said passengers could purchase tickets digitally by downloading the Transit Go app.
At least one utility pole was knocked down in the crash. Crews blocked off one lane of West James Street near the scene of the crash where debris was in the roadway.
The cause of the crash is currently unknown.
This story will be updated when more information becomes available.
