Crash causes power outage, traffic backup in Galt

Traffic was backed up on Water Street in Galt Wednesday morning as crews started work to repair a hydro pole damage in a crash the night before.

A neighbour said she woke up to the sound a vehicle crashing into the pole near the intersection of Water and Ainslie streets around 2 a.m.

“[I] was sound asleep around 2 a.m., heard a bang, really loud, woke me up, followed by a really bright flash," Sandra McKenzie said. "Curiosity got the better of me – came outside, saw that there was a car accident there and power lines involved, called 911 because I was concerned – first responders, has anyone called? And it was a circus since then.”

A damaged hydro pole is seen near the intersection of Water and Ainslie streets on March 27, 2024.(Chris Thomson/CTV Kitchener)

In a post to social media at 6:22 a.m., Grand Bridge Energy said 1,106 homes and businesses in Cambridge were without power. By 9 a.m., the number had dropped to 69. Full restoration was expected by 3 p.m.

Farm League Brewing on Ainslie was among the businesses that lost power.

“As far as the beer that we have in the tanks right now, that’ll all be okay, nothing’s going to ruined, but our timeline on everything’s definitely shifted a bit," said co-owner Mike Mayo. "We run on a pretty tight schedule here – we’re pretty well a skeleton crew most of the time so we need to be as efficient as we can in terms of emptying tanks, cleaning them, turning them over for brews. We had a handful of things that were lined up for today, which inevitably won’t get done today. I think I’ll be here on the weekend to catch up on things.”

Ainslie Street was closed from Water Street to Elliot Street.