SUQUAMISH – Travel along a busy North Kitsap route was shut down for 45 minutes during Tuesday’s evening commute following a one-vehicle crash that completely sheared off a power pole but, apparently, didn’t cause serious injury to the truck’s occupants. 

North Kitsap Fire & Rescue crews were initially dispatched to the intersection of State Route 305 and Suquamish Way for a reported crash into a pole at 4:46 p.m. Tuesday.  En route from the district’s Suquamish station, firefighters came across the crash scene on Suquamish Way at Purves Street – nearly a mile northeast of the originally reported location. 

A midsized, extended-cab pickup truck had been headed toward SR 305 from Suquamish and ended up in that lane’s ditch. Two adults – a male and a female, both from Poulsbo – had already gotten themselves out of the vehicle.  Both stated that they’d been wearing seatbelts at the time of the crash; both said they were not injured, NKF&R spokeswoman Michele Laboda reported. 

The power pole, broken off at its base, was hanging from the high-tension lines.  Because power remained on in the area, firefighters surmised that the wires were energized with the potential to break at any moment from the weight of the fractured pole.  Travel along the roadway was curtailed, and Puget Sound Energy was contacted. 

Alternating traffic resumed along the road around 5:30 p.m. 

The Kitsap County Sheriff’s Department is investigating the crash.