Low-Hanging Communication Lines Cause of Multi-Vehicle SR 67 Collision

Originally posted at 3:05 p.m. on Aug. 7. Updated at 9:33 a.m. Aug. 8.

A deteriorating power pole and low-hanging communication wires caused five separate traffic collisions Tuesday night that involved eight cars, California Highway Patrol Officer Kevin Pearlstein said.

According to the CHP officer, an AT&T power pole on state Route 67 near Archie Moore Road had "dropped five feet off the ground" causing the pole to lean and the wires to hang low. Authorities say four different vehicles hit the pole and power lines, causing minor damage to each vehicle but no injuries.

A CHP officer down the road was notified and responded to the area, Pearlstein said, when a Dodge pickup going northbound on Highway 67, driven by a 61-year-old Ramona man, got tangled in the lines and hit a utility truck in the lane next to him.

Pearlstein said subsequently, both vehicles overturned and hit two SDG&E poles, causing them to knock down and block all lanes on the state route.

Heather McGuinness wrote Patch and said she was the third person to strike the low-hanging power lines.

"Two other cars had hit the low hanging power lines and they were off to the side of the road. When I came around the bend, my car went under some low hanging power lines about window height, then another set of power lines scraped  my car tore off the driver side mirror. I saw though my rear view mirror the white utility truck that struck the lines that flipped the truck straight up into the air and onto its side," McGuinness wrote. "The truck behind him rammed into him. I ran out to help the man out of his white truck but couldn't get to the truck behind him because of the power lines draped all over his vehicle."

CHP said a vehicle traveling southbound at the same time hit the SDG&E poles that were blocking the lanes and got pushed into the northbound lane of the highway, striking a van with a family of five from Ramona.

Pearlstein said live wires fell on the van, trapping the members inside until SDG&E arrived 20 minutes later to deactivate the lines.

The multi-vehicle collisions caused a road closure on Highway 67 between Poway and Dye Roads for about an hour Tuesday night, Pearlstein said. AT&T did not arrive in a timely fashion to cut their wires, the officer said, so SDG&E was given permission to cut the wires on the AT&T pole.

According to the CHP officer, SDG&E was replacing a pole and pulling wire across Highway 67 Wednesday morning, causing a short closure of the road and traffic control for most of the day. As of 2:30 p.m., Pearlstein said the road was once again all clear.

No major injuries were reported as a result of the multiple collisions, Pearlsteain said, but the 61-year-old Ramona man complained of neck pain and was transported to Palomar.

Editor's note: A previous version of this story listed low-hanging power lines, as reported by CHP. It has been updated to clarify that the low-hanging lines were communication lines.