Vehicular Collisions with Utility Poles – Actions Coops Should Take
Experience has shown that motor vehicles occasionally collide with utility poles located along roads and highways. Causes can include driver error, icy road conditions, animal dart out, and collisions with other vehicles. Bodily injury sometimes results and that brings the prospect of litigation.
Those injured may look to the utility for potential recovery. Electric cooperatives must be prepared to investigate and defend claims that may be brought even up to two years after the accident.
Electric cooperatives, like other utilities, typically have the authority to locate poles and structures in the road right-of-way. Often the available right-of-way is limited, resulting in the pole being close to the road’s edge. Some traffic safety engineers contend that utility poles (as well as mailboxes, bridge culverts, fences, trees, etc.) should be further from the roadway. A few of those safety engineers will testify against utilities in litigation..
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