Utility poles

Utility poles are a lot sturdier than I expected them to be. I just watched one of my neighbors crash and bounce off the pole in front of my building twice. The wires twitched a bit, but the pole looks fine so far. Can't really tell how the car fared, though. It would've sucked to have lost power because of a crash after the storm itself was fairly mild.

Comments

[heathflax]

Hit the same pole TWICE? ...trying to divine how that managed to happen...maybe either hit the pole, backed way up to try again to approach the parking spot, and then did the same thing all over again. Or maybe, hit the pole with enough force that the vehicle sort of bounced into the air, and came back down a second time onto the pole...

Anyway, I have a few experiences with observing vehicle hitting pole situations, mostly as to the aftereffects, but once witnessing the act as it happened.

One night about 4 a.m. I was aroused from semi-sleep by a tremendous jolt and sound of a crash...so major that I assumed the front of the "block" (tenement building) I live in,had been directly hit...which if it happened, could stand to happen as a very "direct" hit, since this building is opposite of where an adjoining street (which is actually the town's "main drag")comes in at a 90 degree angle...in other words, a T-intersection, and we're on the blind side of the T.

What turned out to have happened though, is that about 100 feet or so down the street I', on (andjust off the t-intersection proper) a pole--or maybe two very adjacent telephone pole, had been slammed into...as it happened, by a police officer driving one of the town's "cruisers." Seems, a new inch or two of snow had just fallen, and officer headed out in a rush on some call...presumably from the Police Station which is just 300 feet or so up street from the impact site...so it seems he must have basically just "floored it", in his rush, and skidded on the new snow into the pole(s) at a relatively high speed. A main question, to me, is how fast he could have been going from such a limited startup space (while as to braking, the circumstance of the accident being that the crash was just after--maybe 50 feet after--a small but significant bend in the street--it'd seem he probably had virtually no time to try to brake). Because, I mean, the impact of the crash was HUGE.
Yet, as to the telephone pole involved, it didn't completely shear, but only got cracked and pushed in severely without breaking off. This seemed quite a surprise, given the large size of the cruiser, which I believe was the typical big Ford Crown Victoria full sized v-8 sedan. Cruiser was totaled; pole and wires ended up sort of half-down; power went out for a couple hours.

Second accident was, except for road conditions and season (clear road, summer) quite similar at least in result , to the first: poles badly damaged, and wires down and drooping, but pole wasn't completely down. This was in a probably 35 mph zone, and since the newspaper account mentioned "high rate of speed" in this accident, probably the guy was believed to have been going 55-60,65 or something. One difference with the pole, ended up only a semi-difference , in net effect: here there was a second close-by pole, and even though one pole sheared, the other onesix or eight feet away, which the vehicle probably also hit, did not, so basically the pole situation did "not" basically or fully allow the safety assisting result of the pole shearing to take place (in other words, shearing and thus "sparing" the vehicle, since the pole then ceases to be an immovable object critically dangerous to crash into). Probably though, in the process of one , if not both, become cut in two, a large part of the impact "was" absorbed: because the driver escaped without much injury.

The third crash, which happened to be one I 100 % witnessed as it happened, had results which surprise me even more now, than they did at the time--different now because I noted things and drew conclusion about the other two accidents, well after doing same with the this third one, which actually occurred well before the other two.

This accident happened also nearby (I'm in the boonies out in central Massachusetts) but out on a highway, a two lane one, but this was on an uphill which happened to have a extra climbing lane on the uphill side, and the driver was on this side. I noticed him in my rear view mirror, coming up a little fast in this nearer-center lane lane, whereas I was in the slower, climbing lane to the right of that lane. When he got almost up to me, for some reason he suddenly strongly accelerated--almost as if he needed to, which he didn't since, again, there were two uphill lanes on our side of centerline, so he could drive as he wished, could overtake me very slowly if he wanted, or for that matter pull up and drive alongside--there was just no urgent over take mandate, no real pressure unless you count psychological or force of habit or something--or urge to hotrod a little, which I figured was all he was doing...the vehicle was a Corvette. But what he apparently neglected to note, was that he was approaching a substantial if not very abrupt, curve to the right of the road. And so the next thing I knew, he basically shot almost absolutely straight across the highway, with almost no adjustment for, or effort trying to "make", the curve. Maybe by the time he noticed the road curving, he was already well into/across the oncoming lane, and figured at his speed or something, he might best just try to take the presumed going-off-the-road/crash "straight-on", that being often the best bet at least as far as goes staying upright without overturning... given maybe a clear or relatively clear path ahead in going-off-the-road and such...which the driver "mostly" --as he may have been able to realize by flash judgment--did have..."except" for one wooden telephone pole right-on ahead just off the edge of the highway...and yup, he scored the pole dead-on...and amazingly, sheared it right off! ..clipped it right at the base, almost as thought it was made of cardboard, with not too much more than his bumper absorbing the impact, and his car seemed only a little "slowed" even , and mostly just continued on across the roadside turf and then into brush and brushy woods for an incredibly fortunate soft landing.

Maybe I didn't mention: this was a notably thin diameter pole, at least given the semi-big highway setting wherein a guess might be that electric poles might be relatively large, thick ones...or metal ones.

Almost seems that the collective "point" suggested by at least this particular set of incidents, is a maybe dubious one that if you're going to hit a wooden pole, you might be better off if you're going kind of fast, and as well hit same dead on rather than side impact!

As to hitting one other "similar" but not quite the same, type of object, though--live, living trees--everyone might want to take heed from what at least my observations certainly indicate: that live wood. live trees are much different to impact than non-living ones like telephone poles--even rather small living ones, 5 inches or so in diameter, or maybe even 4 inches--may stop your vehicle in its tracks--so limited in their "give" that many times they may as well be a wall; talking almost full potential for crumple hear, at any speed at all. "Forewarned is forearmed!

[digger derrick trucks]

You have to admit, it is beautiful. I wouldnt mind spending a couple of days locked in the house due to a sno storm...as long as it only lasted a couple of days. A snow plow would be a nice investment to keep in the garage.