Storms bring power cuts and crashes

Parts of Carterton and Greytown joined on Sunday night the ranks of New Zealanders affected by power outages this winter, although the causes and duration were considerably different from the Auckland and South Island cuts.
Power to the Wairarapa towns was disrupted after a driver lost control on the Taratahi corner and crashed into a power pole at 10.45pm.
Senior sergeant Warwick Burr, of Masterton, said the car was carrying two people, who both escaped the crash uninjured. He said when police arrived at the scene the car's occupants were not there, but they were found a short while later at a friend's place nearby.
Powerco network operations manager Ross Dixon said all power was restored by 4.30am, within the six hours specified by the industry as the time it should take to build and erect another pole.
This crash was one of several on Wairarapa roads over a wet and wild weekend.
Remarkably none of the accidents resulted in serious injury or worse.
The first crash of the weekend came on Chapel Street in Masterton at 8pm after a car pulled a U-turn to head north and hit another southbound car.
On Saturday a van carrying five rugby players from a college in Wellington on their way to play at Kuranui College lost control 1km from the Rimutaka Hill summit, on the Wairarapa side.
The van went into a bank and was perched near the edge of the hill.
Sunday saw two further crashes.
At 6.45am a north-travelling car hit a patch of ice on the Opaki Bridge, did two 360-degree spins, left the road and went down a bank, finally coming to rest near railway lines.
Later on drivers of a car and campervan became more acquainted than they probably would have liked on State Highway 2, just north of Greytown, at 5.20pm.
Police said the vehicles collided when the car, travelling south, failed to slow down to the speed of the traffic in front, braked, lost control and skidded into the opposite lane and the path of the camper van.
The car received extensive damage and the driver, who was alone in the car, was taken to hospital with moderate injuries.
The camper van's occupants were assessed at the scene and did not require further treatment.