From Niesha Lofing:
Two teenagers face charges after their alleged street race resulted in a crash that knocked out power to thousands of SMUD customers Monday night and continues to interrupt electrical service today.
SMUD crews are still trying to restore electricity to about 100 customers cut off when a high-speed crash took out a power pole in south Sacramento.
Those customers were among thousands without power overnight. Power was restored to about 1,100 customers about 6:30 a.m. today.
A Chevy Camero crashed into a pole at 7:39 p.m. Monday near Florin Road and McCurdy Lane, according to the California Highway Patrol.
The red Camero and a black Mercedes Benz, both driven by men in their late teens who did not know each other, were racing on Florin Road just before the crash, said CHP Officer Michael Bradley. As the cars sped along Florin, a car on Pritchard Road started to turn onto the road. The driver in the Camero panicked and lost control of the car, crashing into the power pole, Bradley said.
The Mercedes, which officials say was behind the Camero, also lost control and crashed through the fence of the Buddhist Church of Florin and ended up in the church's parking lot, Bradley said. It appears that the rear of the Camero, which reached about 85 mph before crashing, officials say, hit the pole.
The 18-year-old and 19-year-old drivers, whose identities are not yet being released, suffered minor injuries.
"Both of them have charges pending because of the little speed contest," Bradley said.
The crash initially knocked out power to about 6,400 customers, but SMUD crews rerouted the circuit and restored power to about 5,200 of those customers within an hour, SMUD's Chris Capra said. The remaining 1,200 customers remained without power despite "feverish" work throughout the night by repair crews, he said.
Power to the final 100 customers was supposed to have been restored by about 8 a.m., but crews were still trying to restore power at 10:15 a.m.
Capra said replacing a pole like the one damaged Monday night takes about 10 to 12 hours.
"It's a big pole, and these are like mini-construction projects," he said, adding that a it takes about four to six hours to replace a smaller power pole. "Since this one is bigger and carries more load, there's a lot more work to be done with it."
Commercial and residential customers are affected by the outage, which is near the busy intersection of Florin and Power Inn roads.
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