Accident takes out power pole in downtown Lincoln

A man driving from Missoula to Great Falls fell asleep at the wheel and struck a power pole in front of the Power House Gym in downtown Lincoln Thursday, Dec. 17.

The driver walked away from the accident without any injuries, despite sheering off the bottom 12 or so feet of the power pole.

"He admitted to falling asleep," said Montana Highway Patrol Trooper Brian Inman, who investigated the accident. "Everything shows that he fell asleep as well. He drove off the road asleep and right through the power pole"

Inman said it was hard to be certain whether the man, who wasn't identified, was speeding , although he suspects he was doing 40-45 mph, due to the shearing of the pole.

"He did receive a careless driving ticket for that driving behavior," Inman said. "He wasn't a valid licensed driver, so he received that citation as well. He did have insurance so that one, he did avoid."

Inman said the driver was wearing his seatbelt and alcohol was not a factor in the accident.

The impact, which saw the top third of the power pole land upright on the ground, didn't cause an extended power outage at the time of the accident, although it did cause a brief brownout.

Howard Skjervim with Northwestern Energy said most often accidents like that will "fuse out" the power, but in this case power to the community remained active until crews prepared to replace the power pole. At that point he said they had to terminate the whole circuit, which cut the power to 721 customers for 23 minutes.

Lincoln Fire Chief Zach Muse and LVFD EMS manager Aaron Birkholz were first on the scene of the accident. Muse and Assistant Fire chief Derek Perez secured the scene to ensure no one approached the live wires until Inman arrived.

Birkholz said he wasn't surprised the man was uninjured, once he found out he'd fallen asleep, explaining that when you're asleep and your body is relaxed, it "goes with the flow." That often results in a lack of serious injuries. He said it's the same reason intoxicated individuals tend to survive serious accidents.