Car wreck causes power outage Tuesday morning
Published 1:45 pm Tuesday, May 19, 2026
A vehicle crashing into a power pole along Port Williams Road north of Sequim led to an area outage, including at some Sequim School District buildings on the morning of Tuesday, May 19.
Clallam County PUD reported that crews responded to the outage caused by a vehicle wreck.
Staff stated that “a vehicle struck a guy wire, pulling the pole over and causing damage to electrical equipment.”
“As a result, the transformer on the pole failed and one phase conductor from the crossarm came down to the ground,” PUD staff wrote online.
“Crews are on scene assessing the damage and working to safely restore power as quickly as possible.”
They estimated power to be restored in two hours, and it was restored around 10:40 a.m.
Clallam County Sheriff’s Office confirmed the wreck was at the intersection of Port Williams Road and Brown Road.
Chief Criminal Deputy Amy Bundy said only one vehicle was involved and the driver was uninjured and cited for speeding too fast for conditions.
Sequim School District reported to families that Sequim Middle School and Sequim High School’s H building and agricultural buildings were without power during the incident.
Sequim Superintendent Regan Nickels said in a phone interview that the power went out at 9:03 a.m. and was restored at 10:36 a.m.
She said the high schools’ bells and announcement systems worked, and students used cell phone flashlights if they needed to use the bathroom.
At the middle school, classes were testing during the outage so they had to pause. Students remained in their first period classes, and if they needed to use the restroom, staff brought them there, Nickels said.
Due to the outage, the school district’s internet went down districtwide and after the power came back it took about 20 more minutes for the internet to boot back up.
Other elementary schools had power, such as Helen Haller Elementary, but were asked to pause testing as a precaution if the internet went out, Nickels said, which it did.
