Two or three days ago, as of this writing, there was a power pole collapse in Bellmore, NY, at the intersection of Bellmore Avenue and Sunrise Highway. The collapsed pole is seen in Figure 1, lying across two westbound lanes of Sunrise Highway. The traffic lights are dark.

Figure 1 Collapsed power pole in Bellmore, NY, temporarily knocking out power.

Going to Google Maps, I took a close look at a photograph of the collapsed pole taken three months earlier, back in July, when the pole was still standing (Figure 2).

Figure 2 The leaning power pole and its damaged wood in July 2025.

The wood at the base of the leaning power pole was clearly, obviously, and indisputably in a state of severe decrepitude.

An older picture of this same pole on Google Maps, taken in December 2022 (Figure 3), shows this pole to have been damaged even at that time. Clearly, the local power utility company had, by inexcusable neglect, allowed that pole damage to remain unaddressed, which had thus allowed the collapse to happen.

Figure 3 Google Maps image of a power pole showing damage as early as December 2022.

Sunrise Highway is an extremely busy roadway. It is only by sheer blind luck that nobody was injured or killed by this event.

A replacement pole was later installed where the old pole had fallen. The new pole’s placement is exactly vertical, but how many other power poles out there are in a similarly unsafe condition as that fallen pole in Bellmore had been?

John Dunn is an electronics consultant and a graduate of The Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn (BSEE) and of New York University (MSEE).

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