A VALE village was plunged into darkness 40 years ago when a car left the road, flew through the air – passing over a deep ditch – and hit a wire supporting an electricity pylon.

The Journal of 1971 reported: “The wire snapped and the sudden jolt brought down two 11,000 volt lines supplying the village of Peopleton.

“The driver of the car got out uninjured and walked home. The accident happened at about 11pm on the B4084 Evesham to Worcester road near Stonebow Bridge, Peopleton.

“The car had failed to negotiate a bend, went through a hedge, jumped a ditch and hit the pylon about 60 yards away.

“A police officer at Pershore said that the driver had apparently walked home and no other vehicle was involved.

“A spokesman for the MEB said on Monday: ‘The car appears to have left the road, travelled over a 20- yard field, jumped a ditch five yards wide and two yards deep, struck the straining wire and landed a further 40 yards beyond in the next field. The collision with the pylon caused two conductors to snap, the lines clashed and burned themselves out. It took us nearly six hours to restore the electricity supply to Peopleton, between 10.45pm on Saturday and 4.35am on Sunday morning.

Because the driver did not report the accident we had to look for the cause of the damage in the dark.

One of our patrols discovered the cause and then we had to replace the lines’.”