Explain this lol

[acudanut]

Boat takes out utility pole

[rickf]

That is called failure to check to see if hitch is closed before leaving the house. Just poor timing on when it came off.

[m3a1]

You wouldn't even get odds in Vegas that a runaway would find a pole under those circumstances.

That said, I cannot tell you how many accidents I have handled where drivers found a pole to hit, despite it being the only vertical object to hit within a couple hundred yards in either direction. The odds are against it....and yet, even runaways find 'em.

It's just a glitch in the matrix, methinks...

Cheers,
TJ

[Mark]

The picture don't make sense to me, something had to knock the pole to the left, no wires on the pole, no other poles in the pole line,

[m3a1]

The trailer came away from whatever was pulling it. Look at the scratch marks on the road from the tongue. The whole thing was traveling toward the camera, came off, drifted left of center, went into the ditch and the ditch kind of guided it along, striking the pole a glancing blow close to the base....where it stopped.

[Mark]

On my picture, I cannot see what you just described, I cannot see clearly the trailer tongue, what was on the trailer.My laptop must be defective, etc??For the pole to lean like it is, the dirt had to be removed from road side of the pole, force knocking the pole to the road.Anyway, not being there my educated guess means nothing!(like trying to explain melted dirt from hot 7200 volt
hitting the ground)!

[rickf]

Wires are still attached to pole and from the looks of it the pole is pretty close to where it was planted, just broke off at the bottom. Not much weight to a glass boat and single axle trailer. But like TJ said, having run tow trucks for quite a while it was strange to see how many vehicle manage to find the only tree or pole in sight. Or pond, I have pulled my fair share out of isolated ponds. That was always a fun job, especially in the winter.

[m3a1]

Click on the photo to enlarge it.

Look at the pole. It looks like driftwood. Any creosote it may have once had is now long gone. Look at the ditch close to the base. Standing water.

That pole wasn't healthy to begin with.

Look at the trailer. Left front of the tongue hit it low. Look at the boat. Left front corner hit it high.

So, that one-two punch from the trailer and the boat, on an already decrepit pole did the job quite nicely.

I cannot tell you how many accidents I have had to pick apart and reconstruct. One of the the interesting things you learn from all of it is, sometimes things that appear to be very, very solid and unyielding, aren't.

[Mark]

Thanks to you all for enlightening me