Power lines fall on car, occupants escape safely
BOONE COUNTY, Ind. (WISH) — Some people are still dealing with the impacts of a strong storm that passed through central Indiana Wednesday.
During those storms 12 utility poles with power lines on them were knocked down in Boone County. The wires fell on top of and wrapped around two occupied cars.
It happened on State Road 75 in Jamestown.
“The power line is on us, on the… well it’s not kind of on our car, but it’s wrapped against our car, and the hails shattered our windshield,” said a driver during his call to 911.
“Training kicks in and you know you definitely want to keep them safe. You want to keep them calm,” said Cassie Hardin. Hardin was the dispatcher who took that call.
“He said ‘One of the lines is down; it’s not on top of my car; it is touching my car,’” said Hardin.
She told him the most important thing to do was stay in the car.
“Go ahead and stay in your vehicle. We have the fire department en-route and police en-route,” said Hardin during the 911 call.
“Yeah there is a bunch of poles down,” said the driver in the 911 call.
The drivers and their passengers, which included at least one child, all stayed in their cars until Duke Energy arrived on scene and could confirm those wires were not live.
A deputy with the Boone County Sheriff’s Office said a lot of people worked together on this, and it ended exactly how they had hoped.
“Even though it can be chaotic and you’re trying to coordinate a lot of stuff, this came to a great end. Nobody was hurt, no injures,” said Deputy Ken Conley with the Boone County Sheriff’s Office.
First responders say as storm season approaches, this serves as a good reminder for drivers.
They say there are very few situations where you should get out of your car when it is touching a power line, but if you have to, the best thing you can do to avoid being electrocuted is to try and only touch the plastic parts of your car to open the door.
Then they suggest you hop out so both feet touch the ground at the same time. After that, it’s best to shuffle your feet until you get a safe distance away from the power lines.