Tens of thousands of households on Montreal’s South Shore remained without power Sunday afternoon, after a bus crashed into – and took down – an electrical pylon on Saturday night.
Roughly 67,000 Hydro-Québec customers were without power in Longueuil by 1 p.m. At the height of the outage, about 88,000 customers were in the dark. Quebec’s state-run electricity company anticipates power will be restored to all customers by 5 p.m.
Hydro-Québec says the bus crashed into the pylon at Chemin Chambly and Highway 30, causing it to fall. Police say it happened around 9:45 p.m.
Crews worked during the night to begin restoring service.
“This is an exceptional event, since traffic in this sector is at low speed and guardrails are installed along the side of the road,” Hydro-Québec said. “The damaged pylon will have to undergo complete reconstruction, which will take several days. Our construction teams are already mobilized for this purpose.”
Longueuil police say the crash involved an Association des Pompiers Auxiliaires de la Montérégie (APAM) bus that left the road. Police say three people were injured.
“For safety reasons, the electricity supply had to be interrupted and will be interrupted for several hours,” Longueuil police said.
An investigation is ongoing.