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Thousands of Hydro-Québec customers on Montreal’s South Shore have been without power since Saturday night, when a bus crashed into an electrical pylon containing two 315 kV lines shortly before 10 p.m. and knocked it over.
The pylon is at the corner of Chambly Rd. and Highway 30. Initially, about 88,000 customers were affected; power was restored to some by Sunday morning but, at noon, 68,735 customers were still without power. Areas of the South Shore primarily affected are St-Hubert, Greenfield Park and St-Bruno.
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Longueuil police spokesperson Ghyslain Vallières said early Sunday that two vehicles were involved in the incident and that a police investigation to determine the circumstances is under way. Three people were injured, he said, but the lives of none is in danger. Chambly Rd. remained closed in both direction at midday Sunday as did the eastbound service road of Highway 30.
Hydro-Québec said that crews have been working to restore power to as many customers by isolating the section where the pylon is located and using other power sources to feed the affected lines.
The damaged pylon will have to be rebuilt completely, the utility said, and that will take several days.
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Hydro-Québec described the event as highly unusual since vehicles in the area generally travel at low speed and there are guardrails all along the road. A transformer being knocked over is a “one-in-a-million” event, said Hydro-Québec spokesperson Jonathan Côté.
Occupants of the bus that hit the pylon were volunteer firefighters with the Association des pompiers auxiliaires de la Montérégie; they were en route to a fire and presumably the bus was travelling at considerable speed, Côté said. The vehicle is not a fire truck but an emergency vehicle used by the volunteer firefighters’ association to assist fire victims.
Hydro-Québec quickly secured the perimeter on Saturday night to enable emergency crews to intervene safely with those involved in the crash, since there were live high-tension wires on the ground.
Power is being restored gradually, said Côté, and it is expected that it will be restored to all affected customers by 5 p.m. Sunday
When power is restored, he advised residents not to turn air conditioning up to maximum and to refrain from using appliances that consumer a lot of energy.
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