Vehicle Collision With Power Pole on Front Royal’s Northside Caused Christmas Eve Power Outage

Town of Front Royal official have confirmed a vehicle collision with a power pole on the 1000 block of North Royal Avenue at approximately 2:30 p.m. as the cause of a north-side power outage and flickering lights further south in town on Christmas Eve.

“We had power out from Commerce Avenue to the river for about two hours until we were able to get lines off the vehicle and make it safe to re-energize the circuit. We currently have about 40 customers out,” Department of Energy Services Director Carey Saffelle told Royal Examiner at 6:20 p.m. December 24th, adding, “We will be around four more hours getting pole changed out.”

Between 3:30 p.m. and 4 p.m. Tuesday afternoon the Front Royal Police Department posted two notices on its Facebook page about the accident:

“Due to a vehicle accident the North side or town is currently experiencing intermittent power outages. The towns crews are actively working to make repairs as quickly and safely as possible,” the first post noted.

“UPDATE: Crews have isolated the outage to approximately 40 homes and businesses who will remain without power for another 4-5 hours as repairs continue. Thank you all for your patience and understanding!” FRPD updated the public in its second post.

A reader says they snapped this picture soon after the power outage. It is unknown if this was the cause. The investigation continues.

One citizen posted that the power was back on in at least a portion of the impacted area by 6:45 p.m., adding a thank you to Town crews for their work on the situation: “Thank you to the work crew who got things fixed up so quickly!” they wrote.

No further information was available about the circumstances of the accident, the investigation into it, any injuries, or potential charges stemming from it. Hopefully there were no serious injuries to any involved parties.

Also hopefully, all the northside street lights were on before Santa hit — oops,  perhaps a poor choice of words on this occassion — before Santa arrived in Front Royal on his worldwide rounds Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. We wouldn’t want our town’s northside kids missing out on their deliveries.

Well, I guess that’s what Rudolph’s nose is for, lighting up darkened destinations.

Ho, ho, ho, and a Merry Christmas delivery to all.