UPDATE: Ashworth Road Reopens in West Des Moines; MidAmerican Crews Repair Downed Power Line

UPDATED at 4:25 p.m.

Power has been restored to West Des Moines and Des Moines residents in the area near First/63rd Street and Ashworth Road, and Ashworth is open to traffic again.

Ashworth Road between First Street/63rd Street and Fourth Street was closed for two hours because power lines were down across the road after a car plowed into a utility pole.

A white Ford Mustang convertible crashed into a power pole on the Roto-Rooter property across the street from the Val Air Ballroom in the 300 block of Ashworth Road. It snapped the pole at its base and the pole and lines were laying on the street. The accident happened at about 2:35 p.m.

Police had the road blocked just west of First Street and cars were having to turn around in the Val Lanes parking lot. The street was also blocked at the intersection of Fourth and Ashworth.

One fire department truck and one ambulance were on the scene, but have left.

The people in the car appeared to be uninjured and were walking around the car talking to police, according to witnesses at the scene.

Five MidAmerican Energy Co. trucks responded to fix the isolated outage. They had to remove the damaged pole as well as repair the downed line. Traffic lights in the neighborhood are operational. About 50 homes in West Des Moines and Des Moines were affected.

Employees from the Roto-Rooter office immediately ran outside to keep cars from driving under the power lines, which are difficult to see, and put out cones to stop traffic before police arrived

“You have saved a life today,” a passerby told a Roto-Rooter employee.