Vehicle crash into power pole in Pleasant Hill causes outage affecting over 2,500 PG&E customers

A vehicle crash in Pleasant Hill Wednesday night closed a roadway and knocked out power to hundreds in a surrounding neighborhood throughout the night and into Thursday morning, authorities said.

Pleasant Hill police said a vehicle traveling north on Buskirk crashed into a power pole near the corner of Mayhew Way around 9:20 a.m. Wednesday. The driver fled the scene on foot following the crash and police said investigators aren't sure why.

Pacific Gas and Electric said the downed power pole caused an outage that impacted 2,566 customers.

The crash forced the closure of Buskirk Avenue between Hookston Road and Oak Park Boulevard in both directions, police said.

Just before 1 a.m. Thursday, police said the portion of Buskirk Avenue would be closed indefinitely and the closure also affected a County Connection bus stop. About an hour later, police said the closure on Buskirk was between Mayhew Way and the Crossroads Shopping Center.

As of 8 a.m. Thursday, 513 PG&E customers remained without power in the area, according to the utility's outage map. The power was restored as of about 9 a.m.

Buskirk Avenue was re-opened as of 9:45 a.m., police said.