CRASH CUTS POWER TO HUNDREDS OF HOMES | Rotorua News | Local News in Rotorua

A car travelling on Clayton Rd smashed a cement power pole to pieces, before flipping and landing upside down on a fence around Karen Anderson's home.

Power had to be cut to 376 Rotorua homes while Unison staff replaced the smashed pole.

Ms Anderson said she was woken by a loud "thump" about 3am yesterday.

"I heard a thump, then I heard voices. I got up and I came outside," she said. "I saw the car upside down in my garden."

A chunk of concrete about the size of a microwave oven lay in the front flower bed - a piece of the power pole the car had crashed into. "Imagine if that had gone through the house."

Smaller pieces of the shattered power pole were scattered across her front garden, falling just short of the deck of her house.

One of the car's lights also landed in the flower bed. "He snapped the pole in half and all the wires were across the road," Ms Anderson said.

"It was a bit close.

"Imagine if it was daytime and there were kids walking past," she said.

The driver climbed out of the car.

"I just don't know how he got out of it alive," she said.

"He's one lucky guy."

Ms Anderson asked the driver if he was all right and he told her he had hurt his wrist.

"The wires - I've never seen so many wires down," Mrs Anderson said.

Unison customer relations manager Danny Gough said while the crash did not cause an immediate power outage, staff had to replace the damaged pole and that meant taking 376 customers off the supply while the pole was replaced.

He said customers were progressively reconnected throughout the day, with the last customer back on at 3pm.

Ms Anderson said the incident had left her worried that bad luck came in threes, as her house was burgled last Thursday.

Two televisions, a GPS and her grandson's PSP were taken.

Ms Anderson's 13-year-old grandson Brandon Olive said the "bang" of the crash woke him up.

"I just came out and saw the car upside down on the fence."

"It looked frightening," he said.

The car was a write-off, Jayden Goodwin, who also stays at the property, said. "I'm quite surprised he [the driver] is alive. All the airbags went off."

Neighbour Marie Davies said she felt the impact of the crash at her house over the road.

"It shook all our windows in our house," she said.

She heard a bang, followed by breaking glass.

"We came out to help and saw the car upside down and the power pole was cut short. There was car debris everywhere. I saw [the driver] standing on the side of the road on his cellphone. "The guy's lucky to be alive. There were wires from the powerline hanging everywhere."

Miss Davies said she had not had electricity at her house since the crash.

Senior Sergeant Andrew Lynch said the driver would be charged with driving while disqualified and careless driving, and would appear in the Rotorua District Court.