COBB — A man who hit a power pole which caused power outages and cable TV outages that lasted for more than 12 hours and road closures for more than six hours Wednesday afternoon had not been found Thursday night, California Highway Patrol reported, although investigating Officer Mark Barnes has “some good eyewitness accounts and leads as to who the driver was,” CHP Officer Adam Garcia said.
The accident occurred at 3 p.m. on Hoberg Drive North of Hoberg Drive South. The man, driving a gray 1986 Ford F-150 pickup registered out of Cobb, drove his vehicle off the road and hit a telephone pole that had power and cable lines on it. PG&E and AT&T responded to fix the power lines. According to a CHP incident report, the road was closed “over six hours,” Garcia said.
For AT&T lineman Shawn Heape, a delay in the incident being reported to area AT&T workers caused further “unnecessary” delays of repairs for area residents. “Usually we”re out there with PG&E, two to four hours after an accident. Time and time again we”re starting to see more of this?it”s not just here in Lake County it”s statewide. It affects everybody in the community. No one wants to be detoured for something that can be fixed,” Heape said.
He said, “we weren”t told about it to respond ?til this morning at 7 a.m.,” about 16 hours after the crash.
“I don”t understand why this is becoming a practice of the future, why call-outs and neglect of the outside plant is a common practice these days for AT&T.”
He said one of the neighbors who witnessed the incident told him, “the guy was coming home and had just got fired from work. He hit the power pole, didn”t do too much damage, but he”s still outstanding.”
Although CHP did not know the identity of the man at press time, and no arrests were made, according to Garcia, CHP has some “hot leads.” No other vehicles were involved in the accident.
Contact Elizabeth Wilson at ewilson@record-bee.com.
