Major Traffic In Northern Marin County Following Collision Involving Downed Power Lines, Brush Fire

There was a major backup on 101 Thursday morning impacting both northbound and southbound lanes, following a collision near the Highway 37 interchange in Novato that took out a power pole and sparked a small brush fire. A grass fire was also sparked after the power lines came down, as seen in photos posted to X by CHP. Photo via CHP-MarinPhoto via CHP-MarinPG&E reported that the crash caused an outage for around 6,000 power customers in south Novato and near Marin Bel Keys. The Novato PD subsequently announced as of 10:46 am that Highway 101 was back open, though traffic appeared heavy in the area as of noon on Thursday. The on-ramp to Highway 37 eastbound remained closed, however, as did the South Novato Boulevard on-ramp to Highway 37 eastbound, and there were reportedly vehicles in the area that were trapped on the roadway and unable to move because downed power lines.