Bottling truck mishap knocks out power

Power was expected to be restored Monday afternoon after an outage that morning when a soda pop bottling truck toppled a utility pole near Avenue A and 20th Street.

A total of 1,416 Arizona Public Service customers lost power in the accident at 7:49 a.m. All but 200 had power restored by 10 a.m. Monday, said APS spokesman Damen Gross.

Power was scheduled to be restored to 15 remaining customers by the end of the day, he added.

The accident occurred as Anthony Lopez was bringing goods to the Circle K at 2098 S. Avenue A in a Kenworth truck towing a Pepsi-Cola trailer, Yuma police said.

The moving trailer got caught on wires connected to the pole on the south side of 21st Street, police said. As the trailer continued to tug on the wires, the pole toppled, causing an electrical fire and power outage.

The Yuma Fire Department responded to the fire, while APS crews arrived to repair the damaged wires and pole.

Avenue A was closed to traffic between 18th and 22nd streets for 3-1/2 hours while repairs were made, police said.

There were no injuries in the accident and no citations were issued, said Officer Clint Norred, police spokesman.

---

William Roller can be reached at
wroller@yumasun.com or 539-6858.