Car leaves Whatatutu Road, hits power pole

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

The driver of a car that left the Whatatutu Road yesterday afternoon and struck a power pole was fortunate to escape significant injury.

It happened at around 3pm, with police and St John ambulance called to the scene.

“The pole snapped off and the lines stayed in the air,” an emergency services spokesman said.

“Quite amazingly the man in his 40s wasn't hurt.

“He was checked over at the scene by an ambulance crew but he was OK, and did not need to go to hospital.”

Earlier yesterday a woman was taken to Gisborne Hospital after the people-mover vehicle she was in left the road and rolled at Makaraka.

The crash happened in Bloomfield Road just before 7am.

“The 26-year-old woman sustained some minor injuries,” a St John Ambulance officer who attended said.

The woman had got out of the vehicle by the time the emergency services arrived.

Police and a crew from Fire and Emergency NZ also attended.