Power crashes

By Paul Dunlop
A TRUCK crashed into a power pole, sparking a blackout in Pakenham on Monday.
Hundreds of homes and businesses lost electricity after the truck hit a power pole on the southern outskirts of town.
Some residents were without power for up to 10 hours.
The incident came on the back of a weekend of extreme weather around the district that saw thunderstorms, lightning, heavy rain and winds cause several other power outages.
Emergency service crews were kept busy with accidents and trees down on local roads.
The truck collision broke the power pole in two and brought electricity lines down onto the PakenhamKooweerup Road.
The road was closed and traffic was diverted from the area for several hours while crews worked to replace the damaged power lines and clear the scene.
Two men, the driver of the truck and a passenger, were taken to hospital but suffered only minor injuries.
Police said it was a miracle nobody was killed.
The two men were workmates on their way back to their company’s Pakenham depot when the crash occurred just before 2.30pm. Both were wearing seatbelts.
Pakenham Traffic Management Unit Senior Constable Brad Cummins said the circumstances of the crash are still being investigated. He described the truck as a writeoff.
Homes and businesses along Racecourse Road and Bald Hill Road were among those affected by the power outage.
SP AusNet spokeswoman Emma DaniellEdwards said the truck smash caused just over 1000 customers to lose power.
“Our crews raced to the scene and were able to restore power to the majority of residences by 3pm,” she said. “Some remaining residences in the near vicinity were progressively restored at 8.20pm with the final few customers coming on just after midnight.”
Crews had to replace the power pole and switch around the network, which caused a longer than usual wait for power to be restored.
“Unfortunately some customers in the immediate vicinity were without power for a bit longer than others as our crews worked to replace the damaged equipment,” Ms DaniellEdwards said.
“We thank the community for their patience and support in unfortunate instances such as this.”
The weather was a talking point around the district with more than 30 millimetres of rain falling in a series of sudden storms on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
The storms made it tough going for motorists. Traffic signals were also temporarily out of action at times, including the busy intersection of Army Road and the Princes Highway on Friday afternoon.
Police were able to direct traffic safely until power was restored.