Dozens of Moray homes suffered a pre-Christmas power scare when an accident led to their electricity being cut on Christmas Eve.
As police warned of icy conditions a car left the road on Beaufighter Road at Nether Dallachy near Fochabers – hitting an electricity pylon that subsequently fell and blocked the road close to the waste recycling centre.
While nobody was injured in the crash it did cause around 45 homes in the immediate area as well as the nearby Moray Council landfill site to lose all power.
However, Scottish and Southern Electricity engineers alerted to the situation and arrived at the scene just before 8am on Christmas Eve – and restored power to the majority of relieved households by 10am with the remainder reconnected by lunchtime.
A spokesman for Police Scotland said: “The road was blocked for a while by a felled electricity pylon and local diversions were put in place.”
Moray Council say that the road held a low priority in their route programme for gritting, a spokesman saying: “Minor roads such as those approaching the Spey Bay landfill site are low priority, but notwithstanding that we would always urge people to drive to the conditions prevailing at the time.”