Police: Driver running red light causes crash; St. George city crews repair damage to power boxes

ST. GEORGE — A crash police said was caused by a driver running a red light at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Westridge Drive came “pretty close” to causing a widespread power outage in St. George just before noon Tuesday.

City public works employees work on a power vault and switch box at the corner of Sunset and Westridge after they were hit by a vehicle, St. George, Utah, Dec. 27, 2022 | Photo courtesy by Chris Reed, St. George News

One driver, who was operating a blue Nissan sedan, suffered a minor injury after his vehicle was struck by a white Lexus sports utility vehicle, police said. The Lexus reportedly spun around and then ran onto the sidewalk and into two St. George Power boxes.

Adam Eldridge, a St. George Power lineman who arrived at the scene, said the Nissan hit both a fiberglass box that is a vault with power lines and a metal box with switches to the main power feed in St. George carrying tens of thousands of volts under Sunset Boulevard. 

“I’m kind of shocked it still has power,” Eldridge said. “This almost knocked this whole section of town out.”

Eldridge and other St. George workers were shoveling and maneuvering to replace the vault box, which was beyond repair and full of live wires. 

“It’s fiberglass and it’s completely destroyed to where we can’t lock it up and make it safe for the public,” Eldridge said. “And then inside that switch where everything lands has been bent and tweaked.”

The crash occurred around 11:30 a.m. and temporarily blocked one of the westbound lanes of Sunset. But within 20 minutes, a tow truck had already removed the Nissan and the street was cleared. Along with St. George Police, St. George Fire responded for cleanup and a Gold Cross ambulance arrived but was not needed. 

Inside a power vault at the corner of Sunset and Westridge after it was hit by a vehicle, St. George, Utah, Dec. 27, 2022 | Photo courtesy by Chris Reed, St. George News

City workers replaced the power vault. Residents and workers in the area might have noticed a few power surges causing lights and computers to act as if they were starting to shut off. 

According to St. George Police officer Berkeley Christian, a driver running a light set everything in motion.

“The Nissan passenger car was going westbound on Sunset,” Christian said. “It had a green light going westbound. This white Lexus SUV was going southbound on Westridge and didn’t notice that the light was red, went through the light. It hit that Nissan that caused that Nissan to spin, lose control, went off the road, hit some power boxes.”

Christian said the driver of the Lexus was cited for running a red light.

This report is based on information provided by law enforcement and may not contain the full scope of findings. 

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