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UPDATE: Power fully restored after Jacklin Road collision

A BC Hydro spokesperson said the collision did significant damage

BC Hydro crews worked through the night on Aug. 6 to restore power to customers affected by a collision that occurred on Jacklin Road near the Belmont Market.

Around 6 p.m. on Aug. 6, a white van crashed into a utility pole, closing Jacklin Road near Belmont Market in both directions. The van was on its side and the driver of the vehicle was still inside.

Police, fire and ambulance crews were on scene. The driver was conscious when Langford Fire Rescue arrived and, with some coaxing, was able to crawl out of the back of his vehicle.

According to Langford Fire Chief Chris Aubrey, responders were concerned about the power lines damaged in the crash and were going to wait until BC Hydro arrived to use the Jaws of Life, but the driver of the vehicle was ultimately able to crawl out with some assistance.

“He wasn’t pinned in there so he just needed some encouragement and we were able to get him out,” Aubrey said.

Aubrey said the man, believed to be over the age of 50, was complaining of chest pain before responders boarded him onto a waiting ambulance.

According to BC Hydro spokesperson Karla Louwers, the pole that the driver of the white van collided with was a terminal pole.

Louwers said the collision caused significant damage that initially took out the entire circuit, affecting 3,340 customers.

Within about five or 10 minutes of the crash, she said their control desk was able to do some switching to transfer some of the load to a neighbouring circuit, reducing the number of customers without power to 789.

At about 7:45 p.m., the number of customers without power was further reduced to 223. Those customers consisted of “essentially a couple of apartment buildings directly across from the crash site,” she said.

At 8:03 a.m. the next morning, she said power was fully restored.

“They did work through the night to get that power restored to those customers as soon as they could,” she said.

Louwers said crews had to replace the terminal pole and do repairs to the underground infrastructure, such as the ducts that serve the nearby apartments.

She said permanent repairs have been made and crews have cleared the site. She did not have an estimate on the cost of the damage.