Serious crash on Riverbend Rd causes power outage

A serious crash on Riverbend Rd has left 41 houses without power. Photo / Supplied

A car was left in a precarious position on Friday after hitting a power pole, leaving more than 40 houses without power, and closing Riverbend Rd for most of the morning.

A police spokeswoman said they were notified at 7am, after a Mercedes hit a pole with a transformer on it on the intersection of Willowbank Ave and Riverbend Rd south of Napier.

Forty-one houses on Riverbend Rd and Willowbank Ave lost power, but most had power back before 10am.

Unison relationship manager Danny Gough said the 11 houses directly next to the power pole remained without power until 3.52pm.

"It was a big job and obviously extensive damage on the network so the guys did very well to get it all done in that time." He said they"full understand the impact it had on the customers".

A new power pole and transformer had to be fitted.

However, despite the upheaval, no one was injured in the crash.

The crash was the second on that stretch of road in just 24 hours.

Police said they were called to a crash on the road at 6pm on Thursday night, following reports of a car having hit a fence. But no one was at the scene when police arrived.

Napier resident Kerry Hebberley lived on Riverbend Rd 20 years ago and said she wasn't surprised to see yet another crash on the sharp bend.

"We would go to bed at night and get woken up quite regularly, we would hear the car, the skid, we would hear it go over the road and my partner would get out of bed and run over and assess the situation, while I would be on the phone to the emergency services or the tow company."

Hebberley said car accidents on the sharp bend had always been common and put it down to drivers completely ignoring the warning signs to slow down.

"There are signs everywhere, it's also a 50km/h zone, on that part of the road anyway, but you get people speeding at 120km/h and then all of a sudden they've got to slow down - we could hear them braking sometimes.

"But you have to be going at 30km/h or less on the left side of the road, if you're going any faster then the car just won't grip to the road anymore. It just goes straight over, through the fence and into that paddock."

Hebberley recalled cars crashing at least five to six times when she lived in the area.

"When I saw it in the news this morning, I thought 'oh it's still going on."

Napier City Council's Team Leader Transportation Robin Malley says council is aware of a number of incidents on that particular corner of Riverbend Rd, most of which have been reported to NCC anecdotally.

"Council hasn't received a crash report from the Police regarding this accident, and is therefore unable to comment specifically in regards to this one.

"However, he would like to point out that there is an advisory sign on this bend, advising motorists to travel at 35km/h on this bend."