POUGHKEEPSIE – A portion of Washington Street in the city was closed to traffic Sunday evening following a one-car accident that destroyed a utility pole and caused damage to a building.
Shortly after 5:00 pm Sunday, City 911 received reports of an accident in the vicinity of 82 Washington Street. Responding officers arrived to find a utility pole snapped in half with a section of it resting on the pavement of the southbound lane of traffic. A few hundred feet further north, on the southbound side, an older Cadillac sedan was parked on the sidewalk against the building located at 82 Washington Street.
As officers checked on the operator, Poughkeepsie firefighters arrived to extricate the elderly male operator from the vehicle and render medical treatment.
The 79-year-old Poughkeepsie resident was assessed by Mobile Life medics and transported to a local hospital for further assessment.
Sources told Mid Hudson News that the vehicle was traveling north on Washington Street when it crossed into the southbound lane, continued onto the sidewalk, crashed through the pole, and came to a rest against the building a few hundred feet down the street. The cause of the accident is under investigation.
Police officers closed Washington Street between Marshall and Mansion in order for the car to be pulled away from the building and removed from the scene by Countywide Towing. Once the car was removed, utility workers from Central Hudson Gas & Electric began to assess the damage to the utility pole and developed a plan to make repairs. As of 6:00 pm, intermittent traffic was allowed to travel on Washington Street.
