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Light pole falls from base, smashes onto moving car along Airline Highway

4 years 8 months 1 week ago Friday, August 09 2019 Aug 9, 2019 August 09, 2019 8:09 PM August 09, 2019 in News
Source: WBRZ

BATON ROUGE - A woman driving down the road had the scare of her life Wednesday when a light pole fell on her car. She reached out to 2 On Your Side's Brittany Weiss to help get the answers she's looking for.

It happened around 2 p.m. on Wednesday. Carole Reulet and her friend were driving northbound on Airline Highway just south of Windbourne Avenue when they heard the loud noise of impact.

"We could be dead right now and I've been thinking about that a lot," said Reulet.

At first, they didn't realize what had happened. It wasn't until they saw the pole sliding down the front of the car did they realize they hadn't been in a car accident. The pole landed where the roof meets the windshield. It hit one of the hardest parts of the car, which Reulet believes is why she's alive today to tell the story.

"We're here alive today to tell this story because we were spared," she said.

The top part of the car is bent and the front windshield shattered. The paint is scraped from where the pole landed, but Reulet and her friend walked away unscratched.

After it happened she called the police to file a report, her insurance company, and then Entergy, after she says the officer suggested it might be their pole. So far, Reulet says the reaction she's received from the company hasn't been great.

"The next day I followed up with Entergy see about the report, they had no records," she said.

Reulet says she's called Entergy a total of four times and has relayed her information to different people each time. She was never given a reference number.

"And I shouldn't be sitting here, I should be dead right now and that's the compassion I get," she said.

The metal streetlight pole is sitting on the side of Airline Highway marked by several orange cones. It's snapped at the base and broken into a couple of pieces.

Friday, 2 On Your Side worked to determine who is responsible for the pole and so far no one is claiming it's theirs.

Entergy hasn't said one way or the other but did provide the following statement:

"We are conducting an investigation into the cause of the incident. As always, the safety of our customers and the public is our top priority."

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