The screens went dim around 8 p.m. Customers briefly sat in the dark before cinema staff got emergency lights working and notified them that a car had struck a utility pole. After a brief wait, customers were asked to leave and were offered rain-check tickets in exchange for their ticket stubs. The replacement tickets are good for any showing of any film, a customer said. Lights in the rest of the mall were on as customers exited the cinema.
About 30 minutes later when a reporter arrived, Oxford police and firefighters were keeping watch around a broken utility pole across Snow Street from the mall parking lot. A gray Honda Passport sat damaged nearby. Neither the officials at the scene nor dispatchers at police headquarters would provide details of the accident.
An Alabama Power Co. worker on the scene said other shops in the mall may have been affected, but since the cinema was the only business open in the shopping center it was difficult to know how widespread the problems were.
