Hydro-Québec is working to repair an electrical pylon that collapsed following a collision on Montreal’s South Shore on Saturday night.
Longueuil police (SPAL) confirmed late Sunday that the drivers of the bus from the Association of Auxiliary Firefighters of Montérégie (APAM) and the driver of the car involved in the accident were arrested.
The collision left 88,000 people with power.
“Our teams are working in Saint-Hubert on the South Shore of Montreal at the scene of the accident where a bus hit one of our pylons,” reads a social media post by Hydro-Québec on Wednesday afternoon. “We have to dismantle the existing pylon and then build a new one, a job that will take several days.”
“The first part of the work consists of detaching the guard cables and conductors still attached to the pylon. Given the significant tension present on the cables, this is work that must be done in stages, with great care, in order to ensure the safety of workers and the integrity of the cables. The cables will then be fixed on wooden posts while awaiting the construction of a new pylon.”
The bus was carrying volunteer firefighters from the Montérégie region and collided with a car before hitting a transmission tower at about 9:45 p.m. on Saturday.
The driver of the APAM bus, a 60-year-old man, faces charges of dangerous driving causing injury, while the driver of the car is accused of impaired driving.
All customers affected by the outage had their power restored by Monday morning.
“Our objective is to allow traffic to be restored on Chemin de Chambly at the end of the week,” wrote Hydro-Québec.