Residents and businesses from South Sound to East End lost
power for more than an hour Thursday night after a truck smashed into a
transmission pole on Sparkys Drive.
Police said the gold Ford Ranger truck ploughed through the
fence at the Caribbean Utilities Company site and hit the transmission pole
inside the premises after the driver lost control of the vehicle and rear-ended
another car, a silver Honda Integra.
Both vehicles had been travelling south along Sparkys Drive,
coming from the go-kart race track, police said.
According to CUC, the crash caused a power outage that
lasted from 9.08pm until 10.15pm and affected a wide area of the island from South Sound to East End and also Camana Bay.
“CUC’s crews responded immediately and worked quickly to restore
power in a safe and reliable manner. CUC apologises for any inconvenience
the outage may have caused,” said Pat Bynoe-Clarke, the utility company’s
manager of corporate communications.
Police said the 911 emergency centre received a call of
a two-vehicle collision on Sparkys Drive at 9.09pm. “The caller stated that one
of the vehicles had crashed into the Caribbean Utilities Company’s fence and
the power instantly went out,” a police statement said.
Fire Services freed two people who were trapped in the
truck. The driver and passenger of the truck were taken by ambulance to
hospital as both had suffered minor cuts and bruises. No-one in the Honda was
injured.
Police said they were investigating the incident.
Lightning knocks out cable
Also on Thursday night, a lightning strike at the TV Centre
caused a power surge that damaged several of the WestStar’s satellite antennas.
After receiving complaints from customers that several cable
channels had dropped, WestStar engineers went to the TV Centre in George Town
to check the damage.
“Unfortunately, it is not safe to work on the damaged
satellites during a lightning storm”, said head WestStar engineer Charles
Stone.
After the storm passed, the crew repaired most of the channels, except for
channels 12, 21, 24, 27 and 115.
The company said its engineers were working to restore all
connections as soon as possible.
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