Motorist drives into electricity pole, leaving many without power
MIDRAND – Eskom Gauteng stakeholder and media relations personnel, Tumi Mashishi said that an investigation of the matter was underway, as the motorist must pay damages.
A motorist drove into an Eskom electricity pole on Norfolk Road in Crowthorne recently and fled the scene, depriving about 1 000 people of going about their day-to-day business and lives.
According to a resident who was affected, Regan Bocchi, the incident took place at about 23:50 on October 5, and power was restored back on October 6 at about 22:00.
Bocchi said the incident affected her household immensely as there was no power for their laptops and Wi-Fi networks.
“With the Covid-19 pandemic, most of us work from home. Food was perishing as our fridge was no longer cold. We stay in a secure estate so at least security was not a big concern for us but for the other residents in the suburb they were left without basic security defences like electric fences or video surveillance.
“It also caused major issues with the traffic as there were no operational robots throughout the area,” she added.
Ward 132 councillor Annette Deppe visited the accident site on October 6. “There is no law enforcement by JMPD on the roads,” she claimed. “It is non-existent and there are too many people driving while drinking in their cars, drunk drivers and speeding drivers on our roads. This driver lost control of their car and caused a blackout in the community.”
Deppe pleaded with motorists to be more considerate on the roads. “People seemingly do not care about the safety of others. They just think of themselves when they are driving and speeding, and all they are doing is that they are going to kill someone else or themselves in the process.”
Eskom Gauteng stakeholder and media relations personnel, Tumi Mashishi confirmed the number of customers affected by the incident.
She added that when Eskom officials arrived at the scene the vehicle in question had already been towed away
She said the matter was being investigated and Eskom intended to recover the cost of repairs from the driver of the vehicle that hit the pole.
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