A utility pole behind Jones Residence Hall fell over after being hit by a driver last week early Thursday morning and damaged three cars, according to witnesses and police. 

Kaya Redmond lives in the Macon Apartments, right next to the pole. She was getting ready for bed when her roommate came home from a trip to D.C. and asked her to come outside. She found her car had been crushed.

“The car is most likely totaled,” Redmond said. “There were bends in the actual framed structure of the car.”

Campus safety officers told Redmond that a driver hit the pole, but drove away about thirty seconds before it fell and was likely unaware. “The pole stayed where it was, so they thought ‘oh, I just hit the pole, whoops’ and drove away,” she said. “So, it’s kind of a mixture of someone hit it but also it was structurally not sound, so it also didn’t take that much for it to fall over.”

 Vehicles hit poles often, but it’s quite rare for the poles to fall over, according to Ashland Police Department’s Officer Chip Watts. APD is conducting an ongoing investigation into the events, and Watts did not comment on the condition of the pole.

“It’s an active investigation and hopefully will have a resolution for those that are involved,” said Johnson. “The big thing is nobody was injured and that’s possibly the most important thing.”

Redmond is at no fault for the incident and will receive compensation for the totaled car, but it’s unclear from whom all the money will come. “All the liability is still in the air,” she explained. “I think they’re going to put it on the person that hit the pole. However, I don’t know if the person who hit the pole is going to go after the college and say like, ‘it’s not just me.’ At that point, that’s not really my problem because I’m at no fault, so they can duke that out with each other.”

“If it was me, I would also want the college to have to pay for some of it because the bottom of it was completely dry-rotted,” Redmond added.

The pole was cleared out of the parking lot on Thursday afternoon and has been left on the grass in front of the Macon Apartments.