Accident shuts down Irvine Avenue

-- Deepa Bharath

A traffic accident early Sunday morning left a portion of Irvine

Avenue closed to traffic for close to seven hours, officials said.

The incident happened about 4:30 a.m. when a car slammed into a

telephone pole and knocked out a transformer at the intersection of

Irvine Avenue and Highland, said Newport Beach Police Lt. John Klein. The

collision happened along the border of Costa Mesa and Newport Beach.

Highland is an extension of 20th Street that begins in Costa Mesa.

Irvine Avenue was shut down between Highland and Dover Drive, Klein

said. It was opened to traffic again at 11 a.m.

Residents in neither city suffered power outages as a result of the

incident, Southern California Edison officials said.