BULLHEAD CITY, AZ – Approximately 375 MEC members were out of power due to a car colliding with MEC electrical equipment Monday Morning.
Not all outages are caused by equipment error, weather, or wildlife. At times, MEC faces outages caused by human error. Luckily, no injuries were reported.
This morning at 7:06 A.M., 375 MEC members found themselves without power due to a car colliding with a piece of sectionalized equipment near the restaurant, El Palacio in Bullhead City. Although we have little control over this type of outage as a utility company, we respond to outages with urgency. First, we work to create a safe, deenergized working scene for EMS personnel, and then we strive to have the power back on as soon as possible for our members.
When an outage like this occurs, MEC sends out a small investigative crew to detect the problem and formulate a safe and reliable solution. Once a solution is formed, crews must bring in the appropriate equipment, so members are not without power longer than mandated to repair the project. This is a large undertaking for an outage that could have been avoided.
After fast work, our crews had new electrical equipment in place and power restored to a majority of members in less than two hours due to appropriate switching of electrical services.
Please take caution while operating vehicles on the road to avoid outages caused by human error, and always call 911 when an accident occurs with a piece of electrical equipment. If you ever observe damaged electrical equipment due to a car accident, please call 844-632-2667 to alert MEC of the issue.
Please remember, there are many ways to report an outage. You can call our toll-free line at 1-844-632-2667, text “outage” to 55050 from a number linked to your MEC account, or use our SmartHub application on your mobile device to report the outage.