MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Three people, including a teen boy and a police officer, were hurt in a crash early Thursday morning at Hickory Hill and Raines Roads.
The accident also knocked out power to a nearby gas station and shut down the intersection for three hours during the height of rush hour traffic.
Police say the 16-year-old boy driving the SUV ran a red light, smashing into another car and taking down a power pole.
“It was a wreck here yesterday, so, I mean there’s a lot of wrecks here at this intersection,” gas station employee Venetta Harnamji said.
Police say the utility pole landed on top of the SUV and trapped the teen driver inside. Firefighters eventually pulled him out.
The crash snapped the power pole in half and caused a chain reaction, pulling down power lines and ripping the meter off the side of a convenience store, which knocked out power and forced them to shut down.
Harnamji says the store owner is going to have to hire an electrician to fix the damage, and they don’t know when they’ll be able to open back up.
“This is a very busy store, I mean, very,” Harnamji said. “We have thousands of people come in every day, so they’re gonna lose a lot of money by being closed.”
“It’s my number one store,” customer Margaret Williams said. “I always stop and get my gas, cigarettes, whatever I need. This is the closest store we got since they closed Kroger down.”
Police say an officer – who saw the crash – was hurt after she stopped to help when a passing car pulled on the downed power lines, tangling her in the wires and yanking her off her feet. Investigators say she’s OK.
MLGW workers spent the next few hours trying to get the poles fixed and the lights back on.
“I hope they get it up soon,” Williams said.
Police say the teen driver and an 18-year-old man who was in the passenger seat are also going to be OK.
