More than 2,000 people left without power in Surrey after truck hits power pole

SURREY — More than 2,000 customers were left without power in Surrey on Sunday morning after a pickup truck belonging to the Lower Mainland RCMP crashed into a power pole at Fraser Highway and 184th Street.

A misaligned manhole cover may have played a factor in the crash along with the fog that limited the visibility.

The accident happened at about 7 a.m., and Fraser Highway was closed for a short duration.

“It’s believed the cover was not on correctly,” Surrey RCMP Corporal Scotty Schumann said. “When driven over by the police truck it was flung to the side of the road.”

Crews are en route to an outage affecting 2800 in #SurreyBC caused by a motor vehicle accident. Expect to arrive around 8:30am; updates after that: https://t.co/MiBROpBHKM pic.twitter.com/QtmMdUNUVo

— BC Hydro (@bchydro) January 14, 2018

Surrey RCMP issued a statement saying that the driver lost control of the vehicle and that the truck veered off the road and hit a power pole before colliding into a store front.

“The police vehicle caught on fire, and the fire spread to the business. No one was injured in this collision,” said the watch commander, Staff Sgt. M.A. Hedderson. “At the time of the collision, it was foggy with limited visibility.”

Update #SurreyBC: The crash caused a power pole to break in three places, and it needs to be replaced. Crews are currently on site replacing the pole, and were able to restore some customers. Currently the estimated restoration time for the remaining 764 customers is 2 pm.

— BC Hydro (@bchydro) January 14, 2018