Police: Crash that injured woman, caused power outage resulted from street racing

LANSING — A crash that closed a downtown Lansing intersection, knocked out power to about 100 Lansing Board of Water & Light customers and seriously injured a woman on Wednesday night was connected to street racing, Lansing police said.

"Speed was definitely a factor," police department spokewoman Jordan Gulkis said early Thursday afternoon.

The crash happened about 11:20 p.m. on Michigan Avenue, near Cedar Street, Gulkis said. Officers arrived to find a black Chevrolet Impala on its roof, with someone pinned inside, she said.

Responders helped the crash victim, whose age was not available, get out of the car and took her to a hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries. The car struck a utility pole, snapping it, and live wires were down on the sidewalk, Gulkis said.

Ingham County officials closed Cedar Street and Michigan Avenue at the intersection about 11:30 a.m.

BWL had 91 customers without power in the area on Thursday morning, with an estimated restoration time of 12:45 p.m. Thursday, according to its online outage map. As of 1 p.m., the utility was reporting 128 customers without power, all in the area of the crash.

The Riverfront Apartments was affected by the outage, Gulkis said.

The streets reopened about 2:30 a.m.

Lansing police don't statistically track street racing as a category, and it was unclear if street racing has become more or less prevalent in recent years, Gulkis said. Even so, the department takes street racing seriously and takes action whenever it comes across it, she said.

Check back for updates.

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Police: Crash that injured woman, caused power outage resulted from street racing