Lights out

Deepa Bharath

COSTA MESA -- A power failure Tuesday afternoon left thousands of

people without power for a few minutes and shut down traffic lights,

officials said.

Minutes after the 2:03 p.m. outage, the failed traffic lights at the

intersection of Fair Drive and Newport Boulevard sparked a traffic

collision, Lt. Dale Birney said.

The accident occurred when one motorist failed to stop at the

intersection, Birney said.

“Usually when traffic lights go out, motorists are supposed to treat

the intersection like a four-way stop,” he said.

For at least 15 minutes, police officers and volunteers helped control

of the intersections, Birney said.

About 2,200 customers lost power after some equipment failed at the

corner of Mesa Drive and Newport Boulevard, said Gil Alexander, a

spokesman for Southern California Edison.

“Most of them were back within a few minutes,” he said. “The outage

affected a couple hundred customers for about an hour and a half.”

Those the outage affected were mostly in the area bordered by

Arlington Drive to the north, Wilson Street to the south, Harbor

Boulevard to the west and Irvine Avenue to the east.

* Deepa Bharath covers public safety and courts. She may be reached at

(949) 574-4226 or by e-mail at o7 [email protected] .