Utility Poles

A wrongful death settlement compensated a South Carolina family of a woman tragically killed by gross negligence of Dominion Energy, an electric company, and Comprium, a communications company, for failing to maintain the 70-year-old rotten utility pole. The truck had legal height, authorities said. Domain Energy installed the light pole, and Comporim installed the drooping pole line in downtown Wagner, in Aiken County.

Jeunelle Robinson was struck by the pole after a truck snagged the line, pulling it like a rubber band before striking Robinson. Surveillance footage shows Robinson trying to dodge the pole before being taken to the hospital, where she later died.

She worked as a social studies teacher at Wagener-Salley High School.

The exact age of the poles is unknown as records are unavailable, and markings have not been placed in over 60 years.  A little over a month before Robinson’s death, Dominion announced a plan to begin replacing all equipment over 60 years old in Wagener. Too late for the Robinson Family.

The family plans to use some of the settlement to create the “Jeunelle Robinson Teacher’s Hope Fund” to provide school supplies and other items to teachers around the country.