Tradie’s ute jackknifes on Gillies Range Rd after hitting power lines
A Cairns tradie who’s ute crashed after running over downed powerlines has clarified what caused traffic delays on Friday while questioning safety standards regulating overhead power cables.
Cairns
Don't miss out on the headlines from Cairns. Followed categories will be added to My News.
A Cairns tradie who’s ute crashed after running over downed powerlines has clarified what caused traffic delays on Friday while questioning safety standards regulating overhead power cables.
At 7am on Friday, Mount Sheridan fencing contractor Jason Tomerini was approaching the foot of the Gillies Range near Ross and Locke when he spotted what he thought were traffic counting cables.
It was only after running over the wires that it became clear that this was not the case.
“I ran over them and they bounced up and got tangled in the drawbar bar of my trailer,” he said.
“I thought someone had set a booby trap and at the time we had no idea they were power cables.”
The trailer Mr Tomerini was towing jacked-knifed and shunted into the side of the car before being forced off the side of the road by the car, which was pitched into a 180 degree spin.
“I could have been killed, if there was a truck coming the other way, or the car could have flipped over or I could have been electrocuted, I wonder what (Ergon) would say if that happened,” he said.
The downed cables caused 139 customers to be without power on Friday morning and triggered motorist delays on the range for a number of hours.
According to Ergon Energy, protection systems kicked in when the powerlines came down, so the conductors were not live when the vehicle came into contact with them.
While the Mount Sheridan resident may not have been at risk of electrocution the incident certainly gave him a scare.
“It definitely lifted the heart rate but it did not occur to me until later in the day how lucky I was and what could have potentially have happened,” he said.
Mr Tomerini wished to make it clear it was a fallen tree that caused the power lines to come down and not him crashing into the power pole, which was stated in initial emergency service alerts.
Ergon stated waterlogged subsoil in the area caused trees to topple, which brought down the power lines.
Workers were dispatched to repair a 400m section of cable and to replace a transformer.
An Ergon spokesman stated the distribution network in Goldsborough and Little Mulgrave areas was compliant with the provider’s design standards and spans, or a distance between power poles of nearly half a kilometre is not uncommon in similar terrain.
But Mr Tomerini believed extra poles could prevent power lines dropping on the roadway in the event of future falling trees.
“I question the 400m span, it’s a bit excessive, if there was an intermediate post in between it would not have fallen across the road,” he said.
Originally published as Tradie’s ute jackknifes on Gillies Range Rd after hitting power lines
‘Non-existent’: Why venomous jellyfish numbers have plummeted
One of Australia’s most deadly marine animals has drastically declined in numbers within the Far North, experts say it could take years before they repopulate.
Two 12yo girls face court over alleged Christmas Eve armed robbery
Two 12-year-old girls, who between them have racked up over 100 charges, have faced court for an alleged violent armed robbery on Christmas Eve in a Cairns suburb.