Sebastopol power outage caused by faulty pole, not collision

Sebastopol's power outage Thursday night wasn't caused by a vehicle collision, but by a power pole that fell over on its own and trapped a driver in her car.

Sebastopol police originally issued a brief press release Thursday night that Bodega Avenue was closed 'due to a traffic collision and downed power lines.'

But a Pacific Gas and Electric spokesman said Friday that the power pole fell on its own.

'The pole fell over apparently due to its condition,' spokesman Paul Moreno said.

When the pole fell at about 8:45 p.m., downed wires trapped a woman inside her vehicle on Bodega Avenue near Nelson Way. The pole, however, missed the vehicle. Moreno said utility workers were able to shut down electricity to those wires and help the woman reach safety.

'We are doing a very thorough inspection to determine the root cause,' Moreno said.

The outage affected 5,072 homes and businesses Thursday night in and around Sebastopol. It also knocked out power to a number of the city's traffic signals.

Most customers had their power restored by 10:24 p.m., Moreno said, and about 1,000 more regained power by 1 a.m. PG&E restored power to 230 remaining customers about 5:40 p.m. Friday.

You can reach Staff Writer Robert Digitale at 521-5285 or robert.digitale@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @rdigit