800 PSEG customers briefly lost power in Riverhead when car hits pole with transmission line

More than 800 PSEG Long Island customers in the Riverhead area briefly lost power Tuesday night after a car hit a pole on Roanoke Avenue, causing a transmission line to trip, a utility spokeswoman said Wednesday.

The crash, at 11:11 p.m., caused 836 outages on Suffolk's East End, said Elizabeth Flagler, a spokeswoman for PSEG Long Island.

The majority of the customers, Flagler said, saw their power restored in under 33 minutes, while another 126 customers had their power restored in about two hours. The remaining 16 customers had their power back at 10:03 a.m. Wednesday, Flagler said.

Elsewhere, across parts of Suffolk County, particularly on the North Shore, residents reported their lights briefly flickering at the time of the outage.

“As the system switches to avoid an outage, customers may see a momentary or a dimming/blink of lights,” Flagler explained.

It was not immediately clear how many customers experienced the momentary power interruption.

By Robert Brodsky

robert.brodsky@newsday.com@BrodskyRobert

Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.