More than 1,700 Entergy Arkansas Inc. customers in the east Hot Springs area were left with power Monday afternoon when the driver of a tractor-trailer collided with a utility pole while attempting to make a right turn.
Entergy's outage website showed 1,743 customers were initially without power when the truck struck the pole at the intersection of Chaucer Street and Mill Creek Road at around 12:12 p.m. By 1:30 p.m., the website showed the outage had been resolved.
"I was just attempting to make a right turn here when the corner of the trailer clipped the utility pole and broke it," said Alton Curry, the driver of the AAA Cooper Transport truck.
The collision caused one utility pole to break and fall onto the truck and sparked a small grass fire in a nearby lightly wooded area. Hot Springs firefighters were able to extinguish the fire in a short period of time. No injuries were reported.
"It looks like the load extended beyond the cab of the truck and that's what caught the pole. The driver said he immediately knew what happened and jumped out of his truck and called us," Hot Springs police Officer Shawn Woodall said.
"We have no reason to believe there was anything inhibiting his ability to operate the rig."
Local on 01/16/2018