BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KBAK\/KBFX) \u2014 UPDATE (MAY 2, 2026, 1:35 p.m.): The California Highway Patrol reported both directions on Highway 178 would be closed, so crews could recover the vehicle involved in Friday night’s crash around 12:30 p.m. on Saturday. Highway 178 reopened in both directions around 1:22 p.m.<\/p>\n
A major crash involving a car that struck a utility pole along Highway 178 on Friday night has led to one-way traffic in the Kern Canyon area as crews work to repair the pole, according to authorities.<\/p>\n
The California Highway Patrol Incident Page reported the crash first happened on Friday night around 7:20 p.m. in the area northeast of the Kern Hydroelectric Plant.<\/p>\n
Reports indicated a black Tesla had veered off the roadway for unknown reasons, and ultimately crashed into an embankment near the Kern River.<\/p>\n
At least one person suffered major injuries and was taken to Kern Medical for treatment. There are no details on their current condition.<\/p>\n
The crash also caused damage to a utility pole believed to belong to AT&T. The pole, along with hanging wires, created an immediate hazard, prompting a coordinated response from utility crews and traffic control teams.<\/p>\n
Authorities shut down portions of Hwy. 178 in both directions overnight, so crews could work on repairs. <\/p>\n
According to Caltrans, the affected area of the Kern Canyon remains under one-way traffic control as repair work continues. <\/p>\n
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Drivers should expect delays through the area in the meantime. Caltrans said the estimated time of reopening is 2:00 p.m. Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KBAK\/KBFX) \u2014 UPDATE (MAY 2, 2026, 1:35 p.m.): The California Highway Patrol reported both directions on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":107132,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":["post-297247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297247\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}