A Perilous Fall From the Utility Pole
A local lineman narrowly avoids tragedy when a rotted pole snaps under his weight, leaving him strapped to the falling timber.
Bert Shanahan had a near accident Thursday when one of the telephone poles on which he was working, near the top, broke off where it had rotted at the ground and fell with Mr. Shanahan strapped to it on the underside. One of the cross-arms held the top of the pole from striking the ground, thus preventing serious, if not fatal, injury to Mr. Shanahan.
“One of the cross-arms held the top of the pole from striking the ground and thus seriously, if not fatally, injuring Mr. Shanahan.”
Linework remains one of the most hazardous jobs in the region. This 1923 account of a rotted pole illustrates the constant physical risks workers faced while building the modern infrastructure of the Columbia Basin.
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