An early morning traffic crash along on East Morton Avenue lead to many residents having no power for nearly half a day on Sunday.
Jacksonville residents began reporting power outages throughout the city shortly after 6AM Sunday. According to a Jacksonville Police report, a vehicle driven by 22-year old Jerry E. Broomfield of Springfield was traveling westbound on East Morton Avenue near Blacks Lane, when for an unreported reason, the vehicle left the roadway to the north into the ditch before eventually striking and splitting a utility pole near the Illinois Route 104 overpass before the vehicle flipped over on its side and came to rest. The vehicle was towed from the scene with disabling damage, and power lines were removed from the vehicle after Ameren officials cleared them from the vehicle.
Over 1,100 Ameren-Illinois customers from Main Street to the east side of the city reported an electrical outage initially. Jacksonville Police had to perform traffic detail at Main & Morton and a few other intersections prior to power being restored to the major portion of the outage area. However, areas east of Hardin Avenue, including several businesses endured a sustained power outage until shortly after 5PM Sunday evening while Ameren crews replaced the power pole and reconnected high-tension lines.
The Jacksonville Municipal Building opened as a temporary cooling center starting at Noon on Sunday.
Broomfield was evaluated at the scene by LifeStar EMS and Jacksonville Fire & Rescue for minor injuries before being released. Broomfield was initially cited for improper lane usage and released with a notice to appear in traffic court.