April 20, 2022 9:20 a.m.

A man was hospitalized after a single-vehicle wreck knocked out power to a wide area late Tuesday night.

A Douglas County Sheriff’s Office report said at 11:45 p.m. a driver was witnessed traveling southbound on Highway 99 in Green at an extremely high rate of speed. His vehicle left the roadway just before the intersection with Grant Smith Road and launched into a field. The report said the sedan struck power lines and snapped a primary pole in half, causing all of Winston and a large portion of Green to lose power.

Both highways were shut down due to having downed power lines. 35-year old Maurice Coleman was transported to CHI Mercy Medical Center by ambulance. He is in stable condition at last check, according to a hospital spokesperson. Coleman was cited for reckless driving.

Sam Carter, Regional Business Manager for Pacific Power told News Radio 93-9 FM and 1240 KQEN that at the peak of the outage, 6,640 customers were in the dark. Carter said a large chunk of those customers were restored at around 1:00 a.m. Most of those remaining without power had it back by 2:00 a.m.