Family of Woman Killed by Falling Utility Pole to Receive $30 Million Settlement

COLUMBIA, S.C.—The family of a South Carolina woman struck in the head and killed by a rotting 70-year-old utility pole will get $30 million through a wrongful death settlement reached Thursday. Electric company Dominion Energy, which installed a light on the pole, and communications company Comporium, which owned a drooping pole line in downtown Wagner that was no longer in use, both signed off on the agreement, which resolved a wrongful death suit brought by Jeunelle Robinson’s family, according to documents filed in Aiken County. Last August, a truck snagged the line, pulling it like a rubber band until it broke the poles and launched one into the air, striking Robinson, who was grabbing lunch during her break as a social studies teacher at Wagener-Salley High School, authorities said. The truck had a legal height, they said....