Power outages by road crash prompts Light & Power safety call

The Barbados Light and Power Company issued a stark warning on Friday about the dangers posed by car accidents involving power poles. noting that a sizeable minority of power outages this year have been attributed to vehicular crashes.

Communications Advisor Adriel Richard told the launch of a series of videos that 26 out of 151 outages this year had been caused when vehicles struck power poles, bringing power lines down.

He said: “What I’ve learned from the team who supervises that department is that the major cause of outages this year has been car accidents—cars just run into light poles, knocking down light poles, which means that power lines are down on the ground.”

“Seventeen per cent, or 26 out of 151 outages this year, have been caused by vehicular crashes. This is the leading cause of outages this year,” he shared.

He also mentioned other causes of power outages: “We’ve also focused on power lines and people picking fruit and people working on your roofs and stuff like that.”

Richard advised the public to be vigilant around power lines: “Look up and look around because there’s oftentimes a power line somewhere nearby. Be careful when you’re working on your roof and be especially careful when working near power lines. Never trim trees near power lines.”

He encouraged people to call the utility if there were any power lines near homes or buildings.

“If you have power lines anywhere near your homes or any buildings, give the guys a call at 626-9000 and we will try to make some kind of arrangement to see what we can do in terms of trying to resolve that issue,” he said.

“Never climb trees near power lines. Reinforce that to all those people who are going to pick the coconuts, mangoes, and your breadfruits—never climb trees near power lines.”

He also warned the public about projects that might damage underground power lines and endanger people’s safety.

“If your projects include digging, like building a deck or planting a tree, you can also call us because you never know where we have underground power lines, and that is also a major hazard,” he said. (LG)