Power restored to more than 28,000 after truck crash on East End triggers outages

Power has been restored to the more than 28,000 East End PSEG Long Island customers left in the dark Thursday morning after a box truck crashed into a utility pole in Southold, police and utility officials said.

By 2:30 p.m., the utility said it had just 5 outages affecting 102 customers Islandwide. But the outages caused by the crash, most of them on the North and South forks, were fully restored.

PSEG LI spokeswoman Kathryn Tatzel said in a statement at about 2:40 p.m.: "Our crews responded this morning to a motor vehicle accident impacting more than 28,000 customers across the North and South Fork of Long Island. Thanks to their hard work, all customers now have power."

Earlier, Tatzel said the outages were compounded by unrelated scheduled maintenance work affected by the accident, which Southold Town police said occurred near Kenneys Road at about 10:20 a.m. — knocking down a utility pole, which PSEG officials said then took out a backup transmission circuit that was in place for the scheduled work.

Southold Town Police Chief Steve Grattan said initial indications were that the driver of the box truck, identified only as a 34-year-old man, may have suffered a medical episode before crashing into the utility pole. That pole then fell across the road, Grattan said, bringing the high-tension wires along with it.

Grattan said the driver suffered minor injuries and was transported to Stony Brook Eastern Long Island Hospital in Greenport.

Check back for updates on this developing story.

By John Valenti

john.valenti@newsday.com

John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”