JACKSON TEENS HURT IN ONE-CAR ACCIDENT

Two Jackson youths were injured, one critically, following a one-car accident that occurred early Friday morning on Route W, near the northern edge of the Cape Girardeau city limits.

The accident caused a 50-minute power outage that affected more than 500 Union Electric customers.

Cape Girardeau police said the driver of the car, Chad L. Davidson, 18, was treated and released at Southeast Missouri Hospital, then taken into custody and released pending filing of state charges.

A passenger in the car with Davidson, James R. Sample, 18, was also injured. He was in critical condition in the intensive care unit at Southeast Missouri Hospital.

Authorities said Sample was trapped in the wreckage of the vehicle and had to be extricated by Cape Girardeau firefighters. Both victims were treated at the scene by paramedics from the Cape County Private Ambulance Service before being transported to the hospital.

Investigators said the Davidson vehicle was traveling northbound on Route W (Boutin Drive) at a high rate of speed when the driver lost control of the car on a curve. Officers said the vehicle skidded 150 feet down the highway and another 85 feet sideways before slamming broadside into a utility pole on the passenger side of the car.

The location of the accident is just south of the Union Electric Glenwood Substation on Route W.

UE spokesman A.D. Cox said the impact of the collision snapped a utility pole along the roadway causing the power lines to short. He said the short caused protective relays at the nearby substation to open, cutting off electricity to more than 500 UE customers in the northwest part of the city.

Cox said the current went off at 3:15 a.m., and was restored at 4:10 a.m., except for one customer near the broken utility pole.