South Carolina teacher’s family seeks improved rural infrastructure after tragic utility pole incident.
Falling Utility Pole Claims Life of Teacher in South Carolina Town
In a tragic incident that occurred last week, a 31-year-old teacher lost her life after being struck by a falling utility pole in the small town of Wagener, South Carolina. The family of Jeunelle Robinson is now pointing fingers at the poor rural infrastructure, claiming that it played a significant role in this avoidable tragedy.
On her lunch break on August 23, Ms. Robinson was walking down a Main Street intersection when a tractor-trailer accidentally snagged overhead power lines. This caused multiple poles to come crashing down, with one of them striking Ms. Robinson with such force that she later succumbed to her injuries at a hospital.
According to a lawyer representing Ms. Robinson’s relatives, this wooden pole would not have collapsed so easily if the utility companies had maintained the equipment in the rural community as efficiently as they do in the city. Wagener, with a population of approximately 600 people, is located about 35 miles southwest of Columbia, the state capital.
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State Representative Justin Bamberg, who is also an attorney representing the family, revealed that the leaning poles in Wagener had been deteriorating for some time. In a video shown during a news conference, Wagener Mayor Michael Miller, now 69 years old, recognized a soft drink bottle cap that he had attached to one of the fallen poles when he was just a young boy.
Mayor Miller expressed his frustration, stating that it was unacceptable for eight poles to collapse in a single street, stretching as long as a football field. However, he acknowledged that small towns like Wagener are often overlooked when it comes to infrastructure maintenance. He mentioned that one of the poles had not been inspected since 2014, and many had significantly deteriorated.
“You would never see poles like the ones we have here in Columbia, Aiken, or Augusta,” Mayor Miller told The Associated Press. ”It’s just part of being a country town.”
Representative Bamberg emphasized that this incident sheds light on the “darker side” of the lack of investment from businesses that rural residents rely on for essential services like electricity.
“The negligence of those who have more money than the entire state of South Carolina is what took her life,” he stated.
It remains unclear which utility companies were responsible for overseeing the poles at the intersection. Dominion Energy, which serves parts of the area, recently announced a power line project and acknowledged the need to replace some electricity equipment that had been in service for 60 years.
Dominion Energy expressed their deepest condolences to the family in a statement and mentioned that they cannot provide further details at this time due to the ongoing investigation.
State Senator Brad Hutto has vowed to address utility regulations when the legislative session begins in January. He intends to ensure that companies report the results of their inspections and that a state agency monitors their efforts to address any identified issues.
Representative Bamberg is calling for
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