Clive transformer crash knocks out power to 500 properties, pair ‘lucky’ to avoid injury

Aaron Pohatu with his children Angel, 16, and Jaxson, 9, who were woken by the crash outside their home. Photo / Paul Taylor

An early morning crash in the Hawke’s Bay town of Clive knocked out power to more than 500 properties and woke nearby residents who say it sounded like “a bomb going off”.

Fortunately, no-one was injured in the crash which happened about 3am on Sunday on Valerie St.

A police spokesperson said a car “struck a power box”, causing significant damage.

Electricity company Unison was on site working to repair the damage on Sunday morning and reported the unplanned outage affected more than 500 properties.

The outage was fixed by 9.30am, but it is understood many of the homes had power restored sooner.

Valerie St resident Aaron Pohatu said his family were woken by the smash outside their home.

“It sounded like a bomb going off. It scared the daylights out of me, to be honest. It was pretty much right outside [our home],” he said.

He and his partner went outside to check on the two occupants in the vehicle - a younger couple - and brought them inside.

“Both [the occupants] were outside of the vehicle and we brought them inside the house and rang the police.

“We had no power at the time so gave them some warm blankets.”

He said it was amazing they were not worse off.

“It was one of those accidents that could have seriously been a lot worse. These two are extremely lucky.

“There is a power pole right next to the transformer.”

He said it had been pouring with rain at the time of the crash.

Pohatu said he spoke to a Unison worker on Sunday morning who said the transformer box weighed about 800kg and had been bolted to the concrete, and was moved “about 10 or 15 metres” in the crash.

He said they had seen one other serious crash on the street, and would like to see signs telling people to slow down on the street to help avoid more crashes.

Gary Hamilton-Irvine is a Hawke’s Bay-based reporter who covers a range of news topics including business, councils, breaking news and cyclone recovery. He formerly worked at News Corp Australia.