SCOTT CO., Ky. (LEX 18) — Back in November, a week before Thanksgiving, LEX 18 reported about a vehicle that hit an AT&T pole in Scott County, knocking it over and shutting down a busy section of Paris Pike.
Since then, four more vehicle versus pole incidents have occurred. LEX 18's Kayleigh Randle went down to Scott County to speak with Michael Hennigan, the Scott County Emergency Management Services director.
Before arriving at the EMS building, it was assumed that a couple of locations would be the culprit and would be where most of the incidents were happening. Instead, it was discovered that all 35 pole crashes since June 2024 were much more sporadic.
"It feels like every two weeks or so, there's something that's going to require the utility people to come out," said Hennigan. "A lot of the problem is the roads are getting widened and so it's bringing the pavement closer to the infrastructure that's right next to it."
Only three roads popped up more than twice in correlation to pole crashes: Cincinnati Road, Newtown Pike, and Stamping Ground Road.
Hennigan explains, "15 or 20 years ago you might have had a few feet of error room from the pavement to where the poles are. But now as things expand you're getting closer and closer to where the poles exist."
Out of the 35 incidents in the last six months, only one resulted in a fatality in the 1600 block of Stamping Ground road, which closed the area for nearly five hours.
According to Hennigan's records, five of those incidents were storm-related:
- 600 block of Carrick Pike
- 600 block of South Hamilton
- 100 block of Scroggins Park Drive
- 500 block of Estill Court
- 500 block of Rogers Gap
Only 18 of them resulted in a damaged pole:
- 200 block of Elkhorn Meadows Drive
- 1800 block of Long Lick Pike
- Aztec Trail at Pawnee Trail
- 4600 block of Newtown Pike
- 2100 block of Cincinnati Road
- McClelland Circle at East Main
- 100 block of Greenwing Court
- Craig Lane at Frankfort Pike
- Outer Ring Road at Cherry Blossom
- 1697 Stamping Ground Road (fatality)
- 700 block of Clairmont Drive
- Cynthiana Road at Newtown Pike
- West Jackson Street at South Broadway
- Cynthiana Road at Muddy Ford
- 1623 Stamping Ground Road
- West Showalter at Irving Lane
- Paris Pike at Newtown Pike
- Payne's Depot at Moores Mill
"We depend a lot on our 911 center to make those phone calls for us, but at a certain threshold, they've exhausted all of their options and all of their numbers. They just turn it back and say you know we've called everybody, we've done everything. We've got no estimated time of arrival," explains Hennigan.
Hennigan says he doesn't know if there's a solution but that people must pay closer attention while on the road. "The small roads. The single roads with the double yellow line, you know taking your time. Pay attention to yellow signs that give you warning about curves and that type of thing because that seems to be where the biggest problem is."
