A 35-year-old woman miraculously escaped unhurt yesterday, after a concrete light pole and two transformers came crashing down on her vehicle.
First responders, T&TEC officials and onlookers were amazed at the woman’s narrow escape, as the windscreen and the front of her black Kia Rio were badly damaged and the vehicle had to be towed from the scene of the incident.
Information provided by T&TEC stated that concrete pump trucks were driving along Chaconia Drive at 9 am when they hooked onto cables from another utility company on the other side of the street. The force pulled on T&TEC’s infrastructure, bringing down the pole and two transformers. Access to a nearby health centre was blocked, as the incident occurred in front of the facility
A section of road had to be cordoned off and the incident caused a power outage. A T&TEC official confirmed that supply was restored and the pole and two transformers were replaced.
The driver, a resident of La Romain, was seen walking around and talking on her cell phone. However, she declined to be interviewed by reporters.
San Fernando Mayor Robert Parris, who spoke with the driver at the scene, was thankful she was not hurt. He said she told him she driving behind a cement truck and saw the power lines falling just before the pole came down on her car.
“Look at the condition of that car. It is a miracle that she is alive. This could have been a different story this morning and we are just thankful for her life,” Parris said.
The mayor explained that the San Fernando City Corporation is supposed to be notified about vehicles exceeding a certain height but that law is seldom followed.
“The correct thing is for them to contact the City Corporation when they doing that type of transportation throughout the city of San Fernando. That is the right thing to do and they should do it. Unfortunately, it is not happening, but that may be one of the things that we have to start to enforce,” he said.
However, a man who claimed to be an eyewitness to the incident said there was no cement truck involved. Azeem Manshoor said he and his wife were driving directly behind the woman and “literally watched the pole collapse” before he slammed his brakes.
In response to the story posted on the CNC3 website, Manshoor wrote: “The transformer that exploded right after hitting her vehicle made the loudest noise I’ve ever heard. I don’t think we’d ever get this image out of our heads. Grateful she came out of the vehicle unharmed and none of us nearby suffered any injuries.
“To my knowledge from being 10 ft behind her, this did not happen! Is this the cover-up to take the blame away from T&TEC’s poor maintenance?? There was no cement truck!!.”
When Guardian Media asked a T&TEC official about this, he said the truck turned onto Cedar Drive, and that was where the cable got pulled, resulting in the incident.