By Jennifer Moody
Albany Democrat-Herald | Posted: Monday, July 23, 2007 12:00 am
A one-vehicle wreck on Old Salem Road early Sunday morning sent one man to the hospital and cut off power to parts of Millersburg and most of southeast Albany.
Pacific Power representatives said the initial power loss affected 11,559 customers in Albany and Millersburg.
Power was restored to all customers by 2:28 p.m. Sunday. Old Salem Road was still closed as of 1 p.m. Sunday while crews worked to untangle power lines.
The outage temporarily disrupted computer and telephone service at the Linn County Sheriff's Office 9-1-1 dispatch center.
First Sgt. Jim Yon of the sheriff's office said the driver, Mario Perez-Ceja, 18, of Albany, was headed north on Old Salem Road in a 1984 Cadillac DeVille when he apparently fell asleep at the wheel.
The car went up a curb just north of Conser Road and plowed into a high-tension power pole, shearing it off at the base, pulling about 4 feet of pole out of the base, and breaking the pole in another section about four-fifths of the way up, Yon said.
The impact caused high voltage lines to drop onto other lines, but no lines hit the vehicle.
Perez-Ceja was taken by REACH helicopter to Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center in Corvallis, where he was treated and later released.
Alcohol appears to have been a factor in the crash, Yon said. The investigation is continuing.