Truck knocks down Wellington CBD power pole

A truck has dragged down a power pole in central Wellington, knocking out street lights.

The concrete pole toppled over on to the road on Walter St around 12.05pm when power cables got caught in a reversing paint truck's cherry-picker.

Wellington city councillor Bryan Pepperell, who watched the incident from the second storey of a nearby building, said his heart was in his mouth as he watched the pole come crashing down outside the Phillip Moore building in Walter St.

''I can't understand how [the driver] didn't feel resistance [from the cables] because the pole is steel reinforced,'' he said.

''[The driver] was so lucky - if there had been a car there that would have been it.''

The fire service had cordoned off the area until power company workers could attend.

Wellington central fire senior station officer Paul Lyall said power to houses had not been affected, just street lighting.

Officers would be keeping people away from the area until a power company arrived within the next hour.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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