Memphis drivers crash into utility poles 80 times a month, costing millions

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[00:00:01]New at 6, a Memphis power problem hiding in plain sight. Dozens of MLGW utility poles destroyed by drivers each month.

[00:00:09]Cars crashing into the poles with the price to replace them in the millions.

[00:00:14]>> Indeed, a cost absorbed by the same MLGW ratepayers who lose power when those poles go down. The Impact Team's Jerry Askin investigates.

[00:00:25]Crash after crash after crash. An Impact Team investigation reveals drivers are slamming into power poles roughly 80 times a month in Memphis. Yellow tape and I seen the cost stuck to the pole.

[00:00:38]Memphis Light Gas and Water customers on the hook to replace them at a whopping 7.2 million dollars a year. The Impact Team got access to MLGW's power pole graveyard where we found assistant maintenance manager Derek Jones.

[00:00:53]Thinking about 80 poles hit a month across the city of Memphis is What do you think about that? That's a lot.

[00:00:59]That's a lot of poles that's being hit that didn't have to be. Jones says replacing a down pole can cost between 7,500 and 15,000 dollars each.

[00:01:09]Typically, Light Gas and Water absorbs the cost, but we try to recover the cost by damage maintenance. Uh if there's a police report, we can actually go out go through their insurance company. So, the the the vehicle owner may have to pay. But that doesn't cover the cost to homes and businesses when power is lost. This crash cut off contractors' work at a site on Mount Moriah. But we delayed.

[00:01:33]Could they keep running into the pole?

[00:01:36]Power allergy can't plug our tools up.

[00:01:38]We got a couple with with batteries, but we got some that got cold. Phillips Walker said he lost power to his laundromat for the tenth time in a year, all thanks to destructive drivers.

[00:01:50]Car swerves, hits that pole right there, knocks the utilities out, hits this bush right there that we had to replace.

[00:01:58]Flams into this building right here, took the door out.

[00:02:01]>> And on top of losing business, he had to pay for the damage. We had to actually pay for the wiring that went from the pole underground here that was yanked out of the pole. And because that was on my property, I had to cover that portion of the wiring, which was over 10 to 12,000 dollars. Memphis Light, Gas and Water manages more than 222,000 poles in its system. Many of them a half a century old. The 50 years is not that old for poles. Um we do have a company that goes out and they test the poles for uh rot, um breaks, shakes, um and if they need to be replaced, we replace them. An impact team analysis of pole replacement in other cities shows Memphis drivers force MLGW to work double-time compared to other utility companies. National electric services averages 25 to 30 pole replacements each month covered by a budgeted 3.5 million dollars each year. Alabama Power replaces roughly 52 power poles a month destroyed by drivers in the greater Birmingham area. Dr. Sabya Mishra is a transportation and civil engineering professor at the University of Memphis.

[00:03:15]Either it is fault of the roadway or it is a fault of the vehicle or it is fault of the driver. Dr. Mishra told me as well as better understanding road way behavior and distracted driving in particular, attention should also be given to where power poles are placed.

[00:03:31]For example, if the poles are placed in close proximity to the roadway, then that causes kind of challenges in vision. If the number of poles those are installed on roadway that is in very close proximity, can the poles be in such a position that the likelihood of hitting them would be minimal?

[00:03:49]So that really can be looked into and that is of the controllable factors that that that can be explored. MLGW says it's not where the poles are positioned, but how drivers drive in the city, noting that most of the poles the utility replaces are hit by drivers speeding, texting, not paying attention, or under the influence. The utility says moving poles simply isn't an option.

[00:04:13]Writing, "MLGW does not design roads, and our poles can only be placed in the right-of-way. In addition, moving infrastructure is not cheap." In quote.

[00:04:23]And that includes putting power lines underground. The cost effectiveness for putting it underground would be astronomical. Who absorbs that cost?

[00:04:32]That cost will have to go to the consumers. My message to the drivers is to stay between the mayonnaise and the mustard.

[00:04:38]The poles don't just jump out in the middle of the street. Stay between the white and the yellow, and you won't have this problem. For the Impact Team, I'm Jerry Askin.

[00:04:47]So, the experts we spoke with say more research is needed into pole placement, road geometry, and when and where accidents are happening. Nationwide, roughly 75,000 crashes involving utility poles happen each year, and Memphis accounts for nearly 1,000 of them every year. For a closer look at MLGW's 50-year study on maintenance and more, click the link with Jerry's reporting at actionnews5.com.