By John Burton
RED BANK —Only four Jersey Central Power and Light (JCP&L) customers remained without electrical power by late Wednesday afternoon following an outage that occurred earlier this morning.
Power was disrupted for about 950 of the utility customers in the borough on Wednesday morning when a utility truck struck a pole, pulling down a power line on Central Avenue, according to the borough’s clerk office.
Service was restored to the majority of the locations about 1½ hours after the disruption occurred, according to Ron Morano, a JCP&L spokesman.
The remainder of the customers were expected to get their power back by 6 p.m., he said.
JCP&L has 6,768 customers in the borough.
The accident occurred in the area of the transit yard on Central Avenue, according to the borough clerk’s office.
The call about the accident came in to the Red Bank Fore Department at 9:38 a.m. this morning. Red Bank police were on the scene and called for the first aid squad to respond for the driver of the truck who received a shock when the live power lines fell on his truck. The driver was transported to Riverview Medical Center for observation. He was concious and alert when the first aid arrived.
The driver told authorities was unfamiliar with the area and thought he could get to Route 35 from Central Avenue and tried to turn around in the NJ Transit lot.
To report a power outage at a specific location call JCP&L at 888-LIGHTSS (888-544-4877).