WATCH: Winnipeg light standard falls onto car

WINNIPEG – It was a scary moment for drivers in Elmwood last week when a light standard suddenly fell onto a car waiting at an intersection.

“It’s very fortunate no one got hurt — that is the main thing,” said Peter Harzan, who captured the incident on his work’s security camera. “If that would’ve landed on the windshield or in the window, it would have been quite different. Luckily it just bounced off the hood.”

The light standard at the corner of Watt Street and Chalmers Avenue fell April 9 just after 4 p.m.

“I have never seen this happen before,” Harzan told Global News. “It has definitely given me concern about our infrastructure in general.”

It has since been replaced by city crews.

“Traffic signals staff attended and found that the signal pole showed signs of having been previously partially damaged,” said a city spokesperson. “On rare occasions, equipment is damaged but not to a level that would cause the equipment to fail immediately as designed. This is one of those situations. The significant wind on this particular day was strong enough to cause the partially damaged pole base to give way and ended up falling unexpectedly – a situation that the department has not encountered before.”