An electrician who propped his ladder against a lamppost fell 15ft when it gave way and crashed down into a busy road.
Bystanders raced to help the man, who was taken to hospital with back injuries at 9.15am today.
It is believed he leant his ladder against the lamp to carry out repairs to Christmas lights dangling from overhead branches opposite the Desert Quartet heads in Liverpool Gardens, Worthing.
Police closed the road as engineers removed the smashed light.
An optician who saw the fall said: "I was sitting in my car and watched him prop his ladder against the post.
"The next thing we saw was the lamppost start to wobble and then the whole thing came down."
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