Car crash takes out city traffic light
Rush hour traffic in and out of New Plymouth suffered significant delays after a car crashed into a traffic light north of the city.
Emergency services were called to the crash, which involved a single vehicle at the intersection of State Highway 3 and Devon St East, just after 3pm yesterday afternoon.
New Plymouth Police Senior Constable Vaughan Smith said the crash had caused significant delays to both south and northbound traffic at the busy intersection at Waiwhakaiho.
The vehicle had crashed over the traffic light, knocking it to the ground, he said, but otherwise it was not a serious collision.
‘‘It is a minor incident which has caused major disruption by a ripple effect,’’ he said.
All traffic lights at the intersection had been turned off and the damaged light was removed, he said.
Lights were expected to be fully operational last night after repairs were carried by road engineers.
Northbound traffic from Fitzroy turning left to SH3 had been reduced from two lanes to one, while officers were manually controlling southbound traffic into both the city and Fitzroy, he said.
At the time of going to press it was not known if the woman driver involved in the crash had suffered injuries.