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12. 11. 09. - 15:00

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12. 11. 09. - 15:00

Driven up the pole

Crackpot planners are driving motorists up the pole - with a 40ft phone pylon built right in the middle of a six lane highway.

The unmarked and unlit pole - in Zhengzhou, central China - has been the cause of dozens of accidents as unwary drivers smash into it.

And road signs only a few yards from the pole show an arrow directing drivers right into it at 50mph.

"We have complained to the council but they say it would cost too much to bury the cables underground so we ate stuck with it," said local resident Chang Feng, 33.

The problem was caused when the road was widened and builders even added an arrow less than 350 feet from the pole pointing straight ahead directing drivers to hit the pole without braking.

The utility pole belongs to the local power authorities which explained that the pole used to be on the road side, but due to the widening of the road, the pole is now in the middle of the road.

A spokesman from the power authorities said: "They (the infrastructure construction department) should have informed us before the road widening project, but none of us knew this. Now it's too expensive to move the pole."

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