Pursuit, power outage Friday morning

A traffic accident in the wee hours of Nov. 24 at Huron and Canadian streets resulted in an hour and 45 minute power outage in Purcell starting just before 7 a.m. Friday.

Purcell Police investigated the accident that included a pursuit with speeds reaching 70 m.p.h. After an extended search, they located the 16-year-old driver, who had fled from the scene on foot, at 324 W. Apache.

He had a 13-year-old male with him in the vehicle when it struck a pair of utility poles on Huron. The 13-year-old was partially trapped in the vehicle for a short time. Both were treated and released at Purcell Municipal Hospital.

Police first were alerted to the pursuit and accident at 1:46 a.m. They finally were able to apprehend the juvenile driver at 3:39 a.m.  even using a drone in the search.

The McClain County Sheriff Department was also involved.

While they were searching, Purcell Police learned the suspect was on probation and they now had a felony charge against him.

The poles had to be replaced and Electric Department Supervisor Trey Phillips said they had no other choice than to cut power to replace the two poles.

Phillips said one of the poles belonged to OG&E and is the main feed of power to Lexington. The other pole belonged to the City of Purcell.

“We waited until everyone (both Purcell Electric Department and OG&E crews) was ready to go to keep the down time as short as possible,” Phillips said.

Power was off in Purcell from just before 7 a.m. until around 8:45 a.m.

Electric crews set a new pole on the northwest corner of Huron and Canadian and one just to the west of the intersection.

“We were notified of the two broken poles at 2:15 a.m.,” Phillips said.

“OG&E showed up and we waited until everyone was ready to go before we cut the power trying to keep the outage in a two-hour window,” Phillips said.

Police said a stolen blue Hyundai Sonata, driven by a juvenile whose name is being withheld, struck a mailbox, an OG&E utility pole, a City of Purcell utility pole and a gutter on a residence and power line connection at 104 W. Huron during the pursuit.

The vehicle hit a dip in the road at S. Second Avenue and Huron and went airborne. After it struck the poles it came to rest upside down and partially on another vehicle.

The juvenile was arrested and transported to the Alan J. Couch Juvenile Center in Norman.