Family of woman killed by falling utility pole to receive $30M settlement
COLUMBIA, SC — The family of a woman from South Carolina hit in the head and killed The owner of a 70-year-old, rotten utility pole will receive $30 million Thursday in a wrongful death settlement.
Electric company Dominion Energy, which installed a light on the pole, and communications company Comporium, which owned a disused hanging pole in downtown Wagner, both signed the agreement, which resolved a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Jeunelle Robinson’s family, according to documents filed in Aiken County.
Last August, a truck hit the line, pulling like a rubber band until the poles snapped and one shot into the air, striking Robinson, who was getting lunch during her break as a social studies teacher at Wagener-Salley High School, authorities said. The truck was a legal height, they said.
Surveillance footage from a nearby store shows Robinson, 31, trying to dodge something before the pole struck her, causing her body to spin violently. She died a short time later in hospital.
“We appreciate the leadership of Dominion and Comporium for working together to ensure that Jeunelle’s family does not have to unnecessarily relive this tragedy in court,” the family’s attorney, Justin Bamberg, said in a statement.
The settlement agreement does not specify how much each company must pay of the $30 million settlement. Bamberg’s law firm said it would not disclose that amount.
The exact age of the poles is unknown because no records are available. No markings have been placed on them for more than 60 years. However, the 69-year-old mayor of Wagner said shortly after Robinson’s death that he recognized a bottle cap he had nailed to one of the poles as a boy.
Just over a month before Robinson’s death, Dominion announced a plan to replace equipment that was more than 60 years old in Wagner, a town of 600 people about 35 miles southwest of Columbia.
Bamberg said he hopes Dominion and Comporium will use the tragedy to focus on inspecting and replacing aging utility poles and other infrastructure that are potentially dangerous, especially in small towns.
Dominion spokeswoman Rhonda Maree O’Banion said in a statement that the company was pleased to have resolved the matter and offered its deepest condolences to Robinson’s family. The Associated Press left telephone and email messages with Comporium.
The family plans to use a portion of the proceeds to establish the Jeunelle Robinson Teacher’s Hope Fund, which will provide school supplies and other items to teachers across the country.
They recalled how Robinson had worked her way up from a substitute teacher to her job as a high school teacher and how she often spent her own money and time on her students.
“She loved her classroom. She loved her students,” Robinson’s father, Donovan Julian, said in March when the lawsuit was filed. “She was a light taken too soon. She was a joy.”