UPDATED: Power Restored at Los Alamos, Monroe Intersection

UPDATE 4:38 p.m. Nov. 20:

Power has been fully restored at the intersection of Los Alamos Road and Monroe Avenue in Murrieta—near Murrieta Mesa High School—following a crash that took out a power pole.

Southern California Edison Spokesman David Song told Patch that as of 3:35 p.m. Wednesday, electricity had also been restored to four remaining customers who lost service following the single-car crash that occurred at about 8:49 p.m. Tuesday.

Traffic lights at the intersection were out most of the day Wednesday, but Murrieta police Lt. Jon Flavin confirmed the signals were operating as of about 4 p.m.

UPDATE 8:50 a.m. Nov. 20:

Traffic lights at the intersection of Los Alamos Road and Monroe Avenue—near Murrieta Mesa High School—remained inoperable Wednesday morning after a driver crashed his car into an electric pole Tuesday night, knocking down the pole and associated lines, a lieutenant confirmed.

"Light are still down, stop signs are up," said Lt. Jon Flavin. "Our motor units are out there doing traffic control during school hours."

Flavin said the accident was still under investigation, but that it did alcohol did not appear to be a factor.

"The driver just veered off the road hit the power pole," the lieutenant said.

Southern California Edison remained on scene Wednesday, along with city public works employees, he said.

"They are working to get that restored."

As of late Tuesday, 16 nearby customers were also without power. An initial outage affected 1,267 customers.

Patch has a call into SCE and will update this post when more information is received.

ORIGINAL POST Nov 19:

The incident happened at about 8:49 p.m. Tuesday near the intersection of Los Alamos Road and Monroe Avenue, near Murrieta Mesa High School, according to Murrieta police Sgt. Daryl Underwood.

Underwood said SCE crews were on scene and working to repair the damages.

Southern California Edison's website reported that it occurred at about 8:49 p.m. It resulted in a power outage. Some residents reported a short blip in their electricity, at about the same time the accident occurred.

SCE Spokesman Paul Klein said 1,267 customers initially lost power due to the crash, but that by 10:05 p.m. electricity was restored to all but 16 customers. He could not say when those 16 would be back on the grid, but that crews would continue their restoration efforts.

The initial outage affected customers bordered to the south by Los Alamos, west to Adams Avenue, northwest to Avenida Florita and north to Hancock. The majority of customers were rerouted to another circuit, Klein said, while it is a larger task to restore power to the customers closest to the damage.

"This pole was apparently knocked down and broken; by tomorrow morning we should know something more," Klein said.

The traffic signals at the intersection at Monroe and Los Alamos may have also been affected, according to police radio conversation. The city's Public Works Department was called out due to the possibility of prolonged service interruption to the traffic lights.

Police were continuing to investigate the cause of the accident, Underwood said.

A Patch reporter on scene said a tow truck had arrived, and that the Murrieta Fire Department was also there.

The car, a silver Pontiac, was well off the south side of Los Alamos Road.

The driver was uninjured, firefighters told Patch.

SCE crews had to cut power to the lines in order for the car to safely be removed from the scene.

—Joe Fanaselle contributed to this report.