An elderly man "thankfully" suffered only minor injuries after a crash that left his car with significant damage, police say.
The single-vehicle crash knocked out the power in the Massey Victory Heights neighbourhood in New Westminster Monday night and into Tuesday morning.
Photos from the scene show significant damage to a car, which according to a City of New West tweet, hit a power pole. That knocked the power out for several hours in parts of the Massey Victory Heights neighbourhood and closed East 8th Avenue between Richmond and Cumberland streets.
In an email statement to The Record, police said the man was heading east on 8th Avenue when he crashed into the power pole, along with several parked vehicles. The man was the sole occupant of the vehicle, and "thankfully he only had minor injuries as a result of the collision," Sgt. Jeff Scott said.
"Based on the initial investigation, it is still being determined if the driver had suffered a medical complication while driving, which may have contributed to the collision," Scott said. "The driver ... was transported to a local hospital to confirm his well-being."
The neighbourhood’s residents’ association tweeted just after 10 p.m. that the power had just gone out in the neighbourhood, and the NWPD tweeted shortly thereafter that police were responding to a crash on 8th Ave between Cumberland and Sherbrooke streets.
Update. East 8th Avenue is open to regular traffic https://t.co/VzJ6SCMaPa
— New West Police (@NewWestPD) July 16, 2019
At midnight, the city tweeted that it anticipated having the power up and running within two hours, and shortly after 3 a.m., police posted that the street was open to regular traffic.
