Lines hang after truck snaps pole

CRUNCH: Scott Simpson, Featherston police officer, with the driver at the corner of Birdwood and Fox streets in Featherston, after the logging truck cut the corner and brought down a power pole. PHOTO/ANDREW BONALLACK

A truck driver says he was trying to avoid another vehicle at a Featherston intersection when he cut a corner, snapping a power pole off at the ground yesterday morning.

Firefighters from the Featherston brigade, only metres from the scene, blocked off the Birdwood Rd-Fox St intersection as high-voltage wires hung over the road below head height.

Witness Peter Young said it was like "slow motion" as he watched the truck turn the corner and bring the pole down shortly before 9am: "I thought he was going to carry on up the road for the moment."

He was not sure if the truck hit the overhead lines or the pole.

Mr Young drove to the Featherston police station and alerted the officer on duty, senior constable Scott Simpson.

The truck driver, who did not want to be named, said he had stopped at the Featherston public toilets on Fox St to use the facilities and check his load before heading over the Rimutaka Hill Rd. He was on his way to Port Wellington, turning left into Birdwood St to connect on to SH2 when the accident happened.

"There was a car on the other side, I couldn't swing wide enough."

He said the car did not stay on the scene and that his truck was "legal height".

Mr Simpson said it was too early to say if charges would be laid.

"Once these guys [power] tell us the lines are dead, we'll have a look.

"If the wheel marks are in line with the post, then it suggests the truck hit the post."