MC crash blacks-out 1,120

FROM STAFF REPORTS
Published: July 30, 2008

BREAKING NEWS

Authorities have now released more details about a Saturday evening car crash that wiped out power for more than a thousand Madison County homes for more than five hours.

A 35-year-old Madison County resident, Michael Ryder, was driving on Hebron Valley Road (Route 603) when his Ford 550 vehicle slammed into a utility pole at about 8 p.m. Saturday, July 26, according to Virginia State Police Trooper V.A. Velazquez.

Ryder was driving on the shoulder of Hebron Valley Road about two-tenths of a mile east of Towles Road (Route 604) when he shot across the opposite lane and hit a highway sign before slamming into a utility pole snapping it in half, Velazquez told The Eagle.

Ryder, who was “hurt pretty bad,” according to the trooper, was transported by ambulance to the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville, she said. The accident is still under investigation and charges against the driver are pending, according to the trooper.

Following the crash, 1,120 Allegheny Power customers in the Etlan, Criglersville, Syria and Banco areas were without power from 7:57 p.m. Saturday, July 26 to 1:10 a.m. Sunday, July 27, according to Todd Myers, a spokesman for Allegheny Power.

He said that the five-plus hours the 1,120 Madison homes stayed darkened was a typical wait for such an occurrence and that the Allegheny crews had a good response time, since “it takes awhile” for workers to bring out and erect a new pole. “They probably had to wait for the wrecked vehicle to be removed and the related clean-up,” he said.

Despite the outages at Graves Mountain Lodge, attendees of a Coppage family reunion event at the lodge continued to mingle and enjoy each other’s company, according to the lodge’s Lynn Graves.

“There was nothing we could do so we just gave them all candles,” Graves said.

Most of the guests didn’t mind reuniting by candlelight, although the Syria resort did run a generator so the group could play some music to keep themselves entertained.

And even with the loss of air conditioning, most of the resort’s visitors seemed to fare well with only outside breezes to cool them off, according to the lodge manager.

“It wasn’t too bad, there was one guest in a cabin that was pretty upset,” he said.