Pickup truck crash in township linked to school closure in New London village
By David Jacobs
A pickup truck crash -- linked to a power outage that shut down New London Local Schools three days later on May 12 -- is suspected of being alcohol-related, the Ohio State Highway Patrol reports.
The crash occurred about 10:30 p.m. May 9 along State Route 60 near New London Section Line Road in Huron County's New London Township, an estimated 5.5 miles from the New London school campus at 1 Wildcat Drive in the village.
A 2015 silver Dodge Ram 1500 struck a utility pole, which the patrol reported was snapped into multiple pieces, cutting electricity to numerous customers.
No major injuries were reported in the single-vehicle crash.
The patrol issued citations for operating a vehicle under the influence (OVI), failure to control and a seat belt violation, the traffic crash report obtained Monday shows.
The driver was informed of a mandatory court appearance in Norwalk Municipal Court, the report stated.
Emergency personnel from the New London Fire Department, New London Police Department, Firelands Emergency Medical Services, Spectrum Cable Management and Firelands Electric Company responded to the scene.
The Ram was located in the ditch with disabling front-end damage.
The driver, a 53-year-old man and the only person in the vehicle, reported to law enforcement that a deer entered the roadway, causing him to swerve in an attempt to avoid it and go off the roadway. He could not recall whether the deer was struck.
No deer was located at the scene.
The driver stated he had consumed two beers and one whiskey-mixed drink while at dinner between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m., the patrol said.
The trooper observed that the driver’s speech was slurred and a strong odor of alcohol was present, the report shows.
During an administrative inventory of the vehicle, the patrol reported finding a Bud Light can, a Jack Daniel’s whiskey bottle, and a Crown Royal bottle on the driver’s floorboard.
The driver reported wearing his seat belt and was driving 55 mph southbound at the time of the crash.
The seat belt was found locked tight to a vehicle pillar, indicating it had not been in use, the patrol said.
The pickup sustained disabling damage in the crash that closed the northbound lane. Wilcox Garage towing service of Willard removed the pickup from the scene.
Firelands EMS transported the driver to Fisher-Titus Medical Center in Norwalk for evaluation.
Before clearing the scene, the patrol reported that Firelands Electric Company and Spectrum Cable Management began repairs to restore service.
The owner of a field was contacted due to potential crop damage.
In a May 11 message to families, New London Local Schools announced it would be closed May 12 while technology and support teams worked to address system outages that followed the crash-related power disruption.
New London Schools Superintendent Brad Romano said the district’s systems did not reboot after the outage.
"I’m not saying there was a direct link between the two but everything worked before the outage," Romano said Monday.
In a message issued May 11, New London Local Schools said the crash resulted in a power outage that had been restored at the academic building. But several systems, including internet, VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) phones, HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning), and food service were affected.
The district said its IT and maintenance teams had "worked diligently throughout the weekend,” but as of Sunday evening "not all systems were fully operational" and did not "meet the standard we expect for our students and staff.”
School was set to resume as normal on Tuesday, May 13.
Firelands Electric response
On Monday, New London-based Firelands Electric Cooperative detailed its quick response Friday night.
"This accident caused extensive damage to a transmission pole providing power to our New London substation, which serves 1,846 member-consumers located in and surrounding the village of New London," said Firelands Electric Cooperative's Andrea Gravenhorst, director of communications and information technology.
The cooperative had learned about 10:30 p.m. Friday of voltage issues affecting its distribution system receiving power from the New London substation, she said.
"Our on-call operations crew was immediately dispatched to investigate the issue and shut off all circuits fed from Firelands Electric’s New London substation just after 11 p.m.," she detailed.
Within about 15 minutes, crews determined that the cause of the outage was a car accident that involved one of Firelands’ large transmission poles.
"Given the situation and fact that we do not have a pole of that size in stock, Firelands Electric’s operations team and management made the decision to remove the broken pole" and take other actions, Gravenhorst reported.
The work to safely address the damage was described as a timely process. "Firelands Electric’s crews grounded the transmission line so they could untie the conductor wires from the damaged pole, to get it out of the way, then removed grounds so the line could be re-energized," Gravenhorst said.
Firelands’ crews were able to re-energize the New London substation and restore power at 1:20 a.m., she added.
INITIAL COVERAGE
Issues linked to power outage prompt New London schools closure