OK my apologies I took Bushy to mean ALL cables near roads like the ones that run parallel with country roads ( for ease of access ) for hundreds of km's. It sounds that they were extremely unlucky to hit the one odd cable that crossed the highway. Surprises me that a single cable as reported didn't break at the insulator or snap. What guage are they around there?
Incidentally I am a sparky also hence my interest in how it could happen.
As PF said above does not happen very often the last I can remember was Maslin's chopper flying into heavy cables across a valley at Burinjuck NSW at least 15yrs ago.