Power knocked out after crash

The motorist was travelling along the A28 when the accident happened near the junction with Wheel Lane at around 5.20am.

The vehicle collided with the pole, sending cables crashing to the ground.

Police, fire and ambulance crews raced to the scene and the driver, a 21-year-old man from Westfield, was taken to hospital.

Luckily the man only suffered from slight injuries and was later discharged.

The road was closed for several hours while engineers from UK Power Networks made urgent repairs in a bid to restore electricity supplies to dozens of affected homes in the area.

Niamh Arnett, UK Power Networks press officer, said: “At 5.38am we received a call from the fire service advising us that an overhead power line had been brought down in the incident.

“Initially, this interrupted power supplies to 81 customers, but engineers rerouted power to all but 37 customers by about 9.45am while arranging repairs to restore electricity supplies to all the remaining customers.

“Repair work continued throughout the day to restore supplies to 34 customers at 5.05pm, with the remaining three reconnected in stages by 6.55pm.”

The road was closed to traffic until 7.20pm, causing disruption to motorists.

Police are investigating the incident.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Sussex Police on 101.