When Granity's police officer went to investigate a loud bang yesterday evening he found the cause at his doorstep.
A car had smashed into a wooden power pole outside the Granity station, snapping it at the base and felling it. Granity is about 129 kilometres north of Greymouth on State Highway 67.
Constable Greg Sherie said he looked out his door to see live power lines across the road.
The 17-year-old driver and a passenger escaped injury.
Sherie said the power lines blocked both traffic lanes and made a ute towing a trailer slide into a fence a short distance up the road.
Granity fire brigade attended, as did linesmen who isolated the electricity lines and cleared the road.
