Semi strikes SUV, utility pole in Darke County; crash knocks out power to thousands

Thousands of people in Darke County lost power late Monday afternoon following a crash between a semi truck and SUV that also took down a power pole.

The crash happened shortly after 4:30 p.m. at the intersection of U.S. 127 and Hogpath Road, according to a release from the Darke County Sheriff’s Office.

Preliminary investigation showed that Jenny Hawkey, 68, of New Madison, was headed south on U.S. 127 in a red 2019 Ford EcoSport. The SUV was struck in the passenger side by a red 2015 Kenworth semi tractor-trailer driven by Kevin Harris, 55, of Sunrise, Florida, also traveling south on U.S. 127, when Hawkey tried to make a right turn onto Hogpath Road, the release said.

Both vehicles traveled off the right side of the roadway, and the tractor-trailer then struck and knocked down a utility pole belonging to AES Ohio, formerly Dayton Power & Light. Hawkey was taken to Wayne HealthCare and Harris was not injured.

There were 1,494 AES customers in Darke County that remained without power as of 7:30 p.m., according to the online outage map. By 9:10 p.m., only 276 customers in Darke County were in the dark.