Castlegar’s fire chief is reminding residents not to drive over fallen power or utility lines after a driver did exactly that on Wednesday afternoon.
Traffic was eventually blocked after lines fell across Columbia Avenue, but before emergency personnel reached the scene a driver had already driven over them.
“They were actually impeding traffic in the northbound lane, because they were kind of still hanging above and as a matter of fact, there was a vehicle that drove over the lines and got it hooked on their bumper or license plate holder, which ripped the license plate off their vehicle,” said fire chief Sam Lattanzio. “This is why people need to know not to do that. Not to drive over downed power lines. Even if they aren’t energized, you don’t know that they’re not energized.”
The lines, which turned out to be cable and telephone lines, came down after a customer at Speedy Glass accidentally hit a power pole, according to Cpl. Dave Johnson of the Castlegar RCMP.
Lattanzio says the power pole was damaged in the impact and will have to be replaced.
“Fortis actually moved their power from that pole temporarily to a lamp standard,” he explained. “So they’re going to replace that pole, along with Telus replacing the lines.”
Speedy Glass lost power and telephones during the incident.
