North Spokane , WA :Intoxicated Driver slammed into a telephone pole at North Nevada Street on Sunday night ,April 19 2015

More than 300 North Spokane residents were without power Sunday night after an allegedly intoxicated driver slammed into a telephone pole at North Nevada Street and East Magnesium Road.

The initial outage started at 7:48 p.m. after 20-year-old Hailey M. Barker hit the pole, knocking out power for 317 Avista customers.

Avista spokeswoman Debbie Simock said the company was able to switch 136 of those residences over to other power at 10:16 p.m. The remaining 181 customers were without power until about 5:46 a.m. Monday.

Simock said the outage took some time to fix because the pole connected to both above ground and underground lines.

“It was a complicated repair,” she said, which included replacing the pole.

Police spokeswoman Monique Cotton said Barker was arrested on investigation of driving while intoxicated. Her car was impounded at the scene.


source :
Driver-pole collision cuts power to 300