mrsmissy10
Junior Member
What is the name of your state? Kentucky
My husband drives a commercial truck for a company as an employee. He was driving in the early morning (Monday) before daylight on a highway he had traveled on previous times with no mishaps. On this particular morning a utility cable (electrical I think) caught on his driver side truck mirror and tore it off, then scraped up and over the truck cab and tore off the wind jammer and smoke stack and then landed on the ground behind the truck while nearly missing another company driver that was following my husband in
another company truck. Needless to say the neighborhood was then without electricity and I assume there was some pretty major damage to the utility lines.
My husband did not see the cable before it caught on his mirror as it was dark and there are overhanging tree limbs and such on this road. A DOT (Department of Transportation) officer came out and wrote up a report. My husband was wondering why this cable was hanging so low over the roadway (low enough to catch a truck mirror is pretty low) and after looking around saw that there were skid marks from a vehicle that had left the roadway and went through the grass and ended at a broken utility pole. We are assuming this happened sometime over the weekend. This broken utility pole was somehow still standing and attached to the cable but this was why the cable had drooped so low over the roadway. The DOT officer also saw this and my husband assumed it was put into the officer's report.
We don't know what the DOT officer actually wrote in his report but he did not act like my husband was in any way to blame for this incident. My husband even asked the officer if he would be held responsible for anything and the officer was like, no it wasn't your fault this happened. My husband's employer also holds the employee responsible for any damage to the company vehicles if the employee is in any way to blame. My husband also receives safety incentives and incentives for not being involved in any preventable accidents. Not once did anyone act like this was my husband's fault in anyway. The company never asked him to pay for the damages to the truck and he received his incentives as usual (the point I'm making here is that no one seemed to think this was my husband's fault in any way).
In fact my husband, who gets paid by work completed, not by the hour, was pretty aggravated this cable was hanging low enough in the road to catch on his mirror. He spent half the morning directing traffic and waiting for the company to bring another truck and pick up his damaged truck. My husband, or someone else could very easily have been severely injured or killed by this low hanging cable and at the time my husband was wondering if anyone had reported this cable and broken pole to the utility company
responsible and since it was the weekend if the utility company had simply neglected to send someone out to fix it. He even considered trying to find out if the broken pole and cable had been reported and neglected but since he didn't know what utility company owned the pole he didn't know who to call. However, everyone was just happy no one was injured so all was forgotten and no one mentioned another word about this incident.
Now, it is approximately six months later and in today's mail my husband received a bill for well over $2,000 from some collections place. It seems he now owes Windstream this money for labor and materials for a pole at (named location) where this incident occured around six months ago. It seems to me like if anyone owes anything it should be Windstream paying my husband's company for damage to his truck since their cable was hanging practically on the ground across a state highway. I don't see how Windstream has the right to just up and send a person a bill like this. When was it decided, and who decided, that my husband should have to pay for this? How can Windstream just send a bill like this when no there has been no trial, ruling, or judgement against my husband?
Anyway, what steps should my husband take from here? Any advice or information would be greatly appreciated.What is the name of your state?
My husband drives a commercial truck for a company as an employee. He was driving in the early morning (Monday) before daylight on a highway he had traveled on previous times with no mishaps. On this particular morning a utility cable (electrical I think) caught on his driver side truck mirror and tore it off, then scraped up and over the truck cab and tore off the wind jammer and smoke stack and then landed on the ground behind the truck while nearly missing another company driver that was following my husband in
another company truck. Needless to say the neighborhood was then without electricity and I assume there was some pretty major damage to the utility lines.
My husband did not see the cable before it caught on his mirror as it was dark and there are overhanging tree limbs and such on this road. A DOT (Department of Transportation) officer came out and wrote up a report. My husband was wondering why this cable was hanging so low over the roadway (low enough to catch a truck mirror is pretty low) and after looking around saw that there were skid marks from a vehicle that had left the roadway and went through the grass and ended at a broken utility pole. We are assuming this happened sometime over the weekend. This broken utility pole was somehow still standing and attached to the cable but this was why the cable had drooped so low over the roadway. The DOT officer also saw this and my husband assumed it was put into the officer's report.
We don't know what the DOT officer actually wrote in his report but he did not act like my husband was in any way to blame for this incident. My husband even asked the officer if he would be held responsible for anything and the officer was like, no it wasn't your fault this happened. My husband's employer also holds the employee responsible for any damage to the company vehicles if the employee is in any way to blame. My husband also receives safety incentives and incentives for not being involved in any preventable accidents. Not once did anyone act like this was my husband's fault in anyway. The company never asked him to pay for the damages to the truck and he received his incentives as usual (the point I'm making here is that no one seemed to think this was my husband's fault in any way).
In fact my husband, who gets paid by work completed, not by the hour, was pretty aggravated this cable was hanging low enough in the road to catch on his mirror. He spent half the morning directing traffic and waiting for the company to bring another truck and pick up his damaged truck. My husband, or someone else could very easily have been severely injured or killed by this low hanging cable and at the time my husband was wondering if anyone had reported this cable and broken pole to the utility company
responsible and since it was the weekend if the utility company had simply neglected to send someone out to fix it. He even considered trying to find out if the broken pole and cable had been reported and neglected but since he didn't know what utility company owned the pole he didn't know who to call. However, everyone was just happy no one was injured so all was forgotten and no one mentioned another word about this incident.
Now, it is approximately six months later and in today's mail my husband received a bill for well over $2,000 from some collections place. It seems he now owes Windstream this money for labor and materials for a pole at (named location) where this incident occured around six months ago. It seems to me like if anyone owes anything it should be Windstream paying my husband's company for damage to his truck since their cable was hanging practically on the ground across a state highway. I don't see how Windstream has the right to just up and send a person a bill like this. When was it decided, and who decided, that my husband should have to pay for this? How can Windstream just send a bill like this when no there has been no trial, ruling, or judgement against my husband?
Anyway, what steps should my husband take from here? Any advice or information would be greatly appreciated.What is the name of your state?