Hundreds without power in southwest IL after vehicle hits utility poles, flees scene
More than 500 Ameren customers lost power after an SUV slammed into and broke two utility poles near 78th Street and Pershing Avenue in East St. Louis Monday.
Ameren spokesman Brian Bresch confirmed 540 homes were initially affected by the crash.
The damaged SUV sped away from the scene, witnesses say. East St. Louis Police Chief Kendall Perry said the driver of the SUV has not yet been located.
In the meantime, Ameren was able to respond to the scene by 12:30 p.m. since it occurred a short distance from its headquarters at 500 Broadway, at 12:30 p.m.
Bretsch said the company was able to reroute power to the affected homes temporarily, which restored power to 160 customers.
For safety reasons, though, the broken poles have to be replaced today. Bretsch said some who have been the temporary restored will be interrupted and the outages could continue into the evening hours.
“Approximately 370 Ameren customers could be affected by the work the crews have to do to replace the two broken poles,” Brestch said.
Bretsch said the crews will work as rapidly as they can to get power restored to all of the affected customers. He said he did not know what time that could be.
This story was originally published February 22, 2021 at 3:45 PM.
