Two serious truck accidents in the past week have kept local emergency services busy.
Fire and Rescue NSW, NSW Rural Fire Service, Ambulance and Police assisted to extricate the driver of a truck which rolled around 60km west of Cobar in the early hours of Sunday morning.
The accident occurred just before 5am with the road train blocking both lanes of the Barrier Highway.
Emergency crews managed to remove the driver, the only occupant of the vehicle, from the wreckage before being transferred by ambulance to Cobar Hospital for further treatment.
NSW Fire & Rescue Station 256 Captain Tony Walkinshaw said the accident blocked the highway for a number of hours.
Temporary detours were established until salvage and recovery crews arrived some time later to assist with the removal of the truck and trailers.
FRNSW crews also assisted with the unloading and cleanup of the truck’s contents taking precautionary measures for potential hazardous substances and dangerous goods.
A mechanical failure is believed to be the cause of a truck accident on the Kidman Way last Wednesday.
Emergency services were called to the scene around 7.30am on Wednesday following reports of a road train accident at the Peak Gold Mine turnoff.
Cobar Police Sergeant Chris Power said mechanical failure is believed to be the contributing factor which caused the road train to leave the road and hit a tree and a power pole.
The truck’s trailers jack-knifed and one of them rolled over.
The driver is reported to have suffered only minor injuries and was transported to the Cobar Hospital as a precaution.
Essential Energy Operations manager North Western, Damian Smith, said their electricity network protection equipment activated automatically after detecting a problem, switching power off to five customers at 7.14am and their crews also attended the scene.
Mr Smith said one power pole had snapped at ground level and brought powerlines down onto the road.
“Essential Energy crews worked as quickly as safety allowed to repair the extensive damage to the electricity network, including replacing the damaged power pole, a pole crossarm and insulators on several power poles, which were damaged by the impact,” he said.
Power was restored to all customers by 5.59pm.
Sergeant Power said the highway was closed in both directions for a short time while fallen power lines were terminated by Essential Energy.
Traffic controllers remained on site for the majority of the day until the wreckage was remove and the power supply reinstated.
Police investigations are ongoing.
