NORTHUMBERLAND – Witnesses say a car speeding the wrong way on Route 11 in Northumberland crashed into a pole, caught on fire and knocked out power for thousands of residents. Route 11 south is still blocked at the accident scene and will be for an extended period of time.
The wreck happened Saturday around 8:30pm. Authorities at the scene, not authorized to speak publicly, said there were consistent reports that a vehicle sped into Northumberland on Front Street (Rt. 11 South), and then turned around at King Street Park and drove the other direction, going the wrong way on the one way street.
The vehicle hit a pole in the 700 block of Front Street and was heavily damaged. It then caught fire and was destroyed. One person at the scene was taken to Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, with what police termed a minor injury. The name of the driver is not being disclosed and we’re told that at one point, the driver tried to flee the scene but was apprehended and escorted to the hospital by a police officer.
The pole brought down wires and caused a power and phone outage in Northumberland, Point Township and some surrounding areas. At the peak of the outage, more than 2,000 people were without power. The utility’s outage website indicated that within an hour the outage was mostly restored. There are reports that Geisinger Medical Center’s Danville campus also lost phone service for a time, but it was restored overnight.
The county 9-1-1 Center dispatched Northumberland and Point Township fire departments, as well as fire police from Sunbury, Northumberland and Point Township. Route 11south is still closed in that area and will be for several more hours, according to fire department estimates.
