A winter storm that blew into the area at the end of President Day’s weekend caused a number of power outages and a few vehicle accidents in Tooele County.
Rocky Mountain Power reported a power outage caused by a vehicle accident affecting the Pine Canyon substation at 3:53 p.m. on Sunday, which affected more than 700 customers. There was also an outage at the Stansbury substation, which began at 9:36 p.m. and affected 2,908 customers in Erda and Lake Point.
The Stansbury outage was caused by a utility pole fire, according to Rocky Mountain Power spokesman David Ekelsen. Utility pole fires are a seasonal phenomenon, Ekelsen said.
With dry weather in the winter and freezing temperatures at night, localized rain storms will deposit dirt on the glass insulators on utility poles, Ekelsen said. It’s the same storms that cause the same light coating of dirt on vehicles.
After the dirt builds up on the insulators, a rain or snowstorm can wet down the accumulated debris, which can then conduct electricity, Ekelsen said. That can lead to arcing on the utility poles, which can spark a fire.
Despite difficult driving conditions due to the winter weather, Utah Highway Patrol only took reports on two crashes during the storm with no significant injuries. The crash numbers in Tooele County were significantly less than in Salt Lake and Utah counties, which experienced 217 crashes between midnight and 11 a.m. on Monday.
Three UHP patrol vehicles were also damaged in accidents in Summit, Utah and Salt Lake counties while assisting motorists who had slid off the road, according to a release from the state Department of Public Safety. No troopers were hurt in the accidents, but the release cautioned drivers to slow down and move over when they see emergency vehicles on the road.
The Tooele County Sheriff’s Office responded to a larger number of accidents, however, with 18 slide-offs, 11 traffic accidents involving property damage, one traffic accident with personal injury and nine motorist assists.