Car Crash on Lankershim Shears Fire Hydrant, Knocks Over Power Line

A woman who was driving a vehicle that crashed into a light pole and a fire hydrant in North Hollywood, causing a live power line to fall to the ground, has been arrested on suspicion of DUI, according to authorities.

The crash occurred at 1:35 a.m. at Lankershim Boulevard and Oxnard Street, said Lieutenant Debra Brounsten of the Los Angeles Police Department's Valley Traffic Division.

The woman struck the power pole, causing it and a power line to fall, said Sgt. Ernie Fischer of the Los Angeles Police Department North Hollywood Station. Then she allegedly struck the hydrant, severing it from its connection.

One side of the power line was connected to a pole that automatically shut down after being sheared from its base, he said.

Electricity in the area was "temporarily disabled" for about 1,500 customers as a result of the crash until the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power was able to repair a transformer in the area, Jane Galbraith of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power said.

The driver, whose name has not been released, was booked at the Van Nuys jail on suspicion of DUI, according to Brounsten.

In August, two women were killed in nearby Valley Village when an SUV sheared off a fire hydrant and knocked down a light pole on Magnolia Boulevard.