The man was attempting to wipe the inside of his windscreen while driving along Canal St when he lost control of the car and swerved into the channel at around 7.20pm on Monday night.

The car, a BMW, had to be pulled from the canal. The man was charged by police with negligent driving.

Emergency service crews in Griffith were being kept busy on Monday from the massive dust storm, but thankfully there were few injuries reported.

The SES responded to an unusually high number of calls on Monday, with fallen trees and branches taking up most of their time.

A tree falling onto a car in front of a Wyangan Avenue business proved to be the most significant of the reported storm damage attended by the SES, but no one was hurt.

But while the 90 kilometre an hour winds were keeping emergency crews occupied, the SES’ Terry Potroz said Griffith residents were lucky not to face greater storm damage.

“There was one roof damaged, and the rest were mainly trees and branches,” he said.

“The car on Wyangan Avenue seems to be the most serious damage we had.” After the loss of several branches during the storm, an SES crew yesterday cut down a dying tree at Tharbogang School to prevent further damage in future.