Tractor incident caused power cut in Scarva

The resident's of a small village in Co Down were left without electricity yesterday after a tractor damaged a concrete electricity pole in the Scarva area.

The majority of customers were left without power for around two hours, and around 73 did not have power restored until 10pm.

Urging farmers to be especially vigilant at this time of year, William Steele, NIE Customer Relations Manager for the area, said. “The number of farming related damages to the high voltage electricity network now stands at over 20 since the beginning of the year. Any of these incidences could have had fatal consequences.

"We appreciate that this is a busy time of year for farmers but would ask that they exercise vigilance and act responsibly when working around overhead lines, whether using silage or hedge cutting machinery or spreading slurry."

Mr Steele said alarming incidents such as yesterday's could easily have been prevented if farmers had taken the surrounding electricity network into consideration when planning their work.

He urged those within the farming sector to take extra precautions in the future.

(MB)