Retired Philadelphia teacher, 73, crushed to death by rotting pole on high school field, lawsuit claims

A retired teacher was fatally crushed by a giant pole school administrators let rot away when it toppled onto a Pennsylvania high school track she was leisurely walking on, a new lawsuit claims.The 45-foot wooden utility pole — which had continued to rot for over 10 years — snapped at its base and fell atop Paula Budin on the Roxborough High School’s athletic complex during the morning hours of Dec.5, 2024, court papers said.When a passerby found Budin, 73, she was bleeding and unresponsive — and paramedics were unable to revive her, according to the lawsuit filed by her family, which was obtained by The Philadelphia Inquirer.The former teacher died of blunt force trauma injuries, the lawsuit filed Friday in Philadelphia court said.Her family claimed the Philadelphia School District and the Parsons Corporation — which was hired to assess the district’s facilities — failed to maintain or inspect the rotting pole.The visible signs of decay were noticeable as far back as 2014, court papers said.“Despite this actual and/or constructive knowledge and their appreciation of that risk of catastrophic harm, the district did not take corrective action nor did it warn students or members of the community of the risk of catastrophic harm,” the family’s attorneys said.

Four poles — including the one that snapped — had been used to hold lighting and security cameras were positioned along the school’s athletic complex, which was generally open to the public, the court filing detailed.The school district eventually removed the three remaining poles after Budin’s troubling death — but a subsequent investigation by the district’s lawyers and experts found the poles had not been inspected before she was killed, the outlet reported.The pole that crushed the former educator was buried in grass near a debris-filled storm drain, causing standing water to soak into the pole and lead it to “deteriorate and rot to the point of severe and dangerous decay,”...