A 16-year-old knocked over the mast of a high-voltage line with his tractor, causing a widespread power outage affecting tens of thousands of people in North Rhine-Westphalia.
Parts of the Euskirchen and Düren districts as well as the Rhein-Erft and Rhein-Sieg districts were without electricity, as a spokeswoman for the distribution network operator Westnetz announced on Thursday. In the meantime, 65,000 people were affected. The supply was restored a good four hours after the accident.
An overhead line with 110,000 volts was affected. On the advice of the authorities, a second, parallel connection was also disabled to be on the safe side, said the Westnetz spokeswoman. As a result, three Westnetz substations in Erftstadt-Lechenich, Weilerswist-Vernich and Zülpich went offline.
According to the police, the 16-year-old drove into a cornfield in Weilerswist (Euskirchen district) at around 11:15 a.m. against the power pole. The cause of the accident is still unclear, said a police spokesman. The youth suffered minor injuries, as did a couple who were driving their car on the nearby county road and crashed into the power line.
Temporary closure of the A1
According to the Euskirchen police, the mobile network was also partially affected. All fire brigade equipment houses were manned as contact persons for emergencies. Where there was no electricity, the landline network was also affected. According to a report by the "Kölnische Rundschau", Autobahn 1 was also temporarily closed in the vicinity for safety reasons.
The police increased their presence in the area. In the Rhein-Erft district, there were parts of a hundred on site who were already in the vicinity because of a planned operation. These should be accessible to citizens there, said a police spokesman. "People are worried, afraid." After the electricity was back in the Erftstadt area, it said: "Dangerous situations or criminal offenses in connection with the power failure are currently not known."
