West Tamworth power outage: Power restored to 937 homes and businesses after car crash on Cole Road

ESSENTIAL Energy crews have restored power to the remaining impacted homes and businesses in West Tamworth after a car crashed into a power pole in the early hours of Monday morning.

The accident at 2am on Cole Road caused a crossarm to break resulting in broken powerlines, cutting power to 937 homes.

Essential Energy crews quickly responded, and power was restored to 549 customers at 3.17am.

For the remaining 388, crews worked throughout Monday to carry out the repairs, and power was restored around lunchtime.

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HUNDREDS of homes and businesses are still without power in West Tamworth after a car smashed into a power pole at around 2am Monday morning.

Essential Energy crews responded quickly to the outage which initially impacted 937 homes, amid reports the single motor vehicle crash on Cole Road had impacted the electricity network.

Community Relations Manager Northern Bronya Pressler said to ensure the safety of the public and their properties, electricity network protection equipment activated automatically after detecting a problem at 2.14am.

"Upon arrival, crews discovered a motor vehicle had impacted the electricity network, causing significant damage," she said.

Emergency services also attended the scene of the crash and upon arrival found the vehicle impact caused a crossarm to break resulting in broken powerlines, bringing them to the ground.

"Essential Energy crews worked as quickly as safety allowed to isolate the damage to the network and power was restored to 549 customers at 3.17am," Ms Pressler added.

Crews are currently working to carry out repairs and at this stage, power is expected to be restored to the majority of the remaining 388 customers by lunchtime.

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However, around 60 customers will remain without power until crews complete inspections at these properties, and they are deemed safe.

"The excessive voltage sent through the network has the potential to damage not only Essential Energy's network, but also customers' private electrical installations, and as such, it is necessary for crews to inspect each of those premises for damage prior to reconnecting their power," Ms Pressler said.

"Where a customer's premises has been assessed by Essential Energy and deemed unsafe for reconnection due to damage to any part of their electrical installation, customers must engage an electrical contractor to inspect and, where necessary, repair their property before power can be reconnected."

The public is reminded that, if a vehicle contacts the electricity network, occupants should stay in the vehicle if it is safe to do so and immediately contact Essential Energy on 13 20 80.

For their own safety, it is extremely important that the public always treats fallen powerlines as live.

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