POWER POLE STRUCK

Taranaki Daily News, 21 March 1935, Page 4

POWER POLE STRUCK

EYE INJURY TO CAR OCCUPANT. POWER SUPPLY INTERRUPTED. Injuries to the left eye, bruises on the head and cuts and abrasions on the leg were sustained by Mr. Roy McDonald, an Auckland traveller, in a head-on collision with an electricity service pole following a skid by his five-seater sedan car on Richmond Road, Lepper ton, early yesterday morning. Mr. McDonald was removed', after receiving medical attention to a private hospital at New Plymouth, but his injuries are not serious and his condition is satisfactory. The power pole was snapped by the impact and the power supply disconnected thereby, causing a hold-up of morning milking operations in the Lepperton area. The service was restored late in the morning. a . Mr. McDonald, a traveller for the Australasian Seed Company, Auckland, was driving north when his car skidded in loose metal about 7.30 a.m. The car veered off the road directly into the pole. The front of the car sustained extensive damage, the bumper being bent into a half-circle, the radiator crushed m and air cooling system smashed. The axle, front spring and wheels were bent, but little damage was done to mudguards or bodywork. The headlights were undamaged and the only damage to glass was the smashing of a pane on the fiver’s side and the cracking of the windscreen. , . ~ Mr. McDonald’s severest injury, a blow on the side of the head, was given attention by Dr. R. L. Barclay, Waitara, and Mr. J. M. Clarke attended him later at New Plymouth. The cutting off of power and lighting interfered with operations on farms and at the dairy factory, where many suppliers had a long wait. Repairs were commenced promptly but took two to three hours to complete.