Still no answers in Hopkins deadly utility pole accident

Tonight, this Sunday will mark 12 weeks since the deadly utility pole incident that happened in Hopkins, but we still don't know why that pole fell, crashing onto a car and killing a 31-year-old man. Fox 9's Mike Manzoni has covered this story for weeks now, and Mike, Xcel Energy keeps telling you that the accident is under investigation. Yeah, and that's really all it's told us since August. Police are not involved here because there was no crime. And state regulators won't investigate what happened because they say it's not their job. That leaves only Xcel to investigate, and some have a problem with that. Nearly three months after the utility pole that once stood here suddenly fell, crashing onto Kenny Green's car and killing him, we still don't know why it happened. Xcel Energy has told Fox 9 that inspectors last checked the 29-year-old pole three years ago and found that it had 93 percent strength. The company says it never received any calls about the pole or any others in the area. Just days after the accident, we sought answers from a structural engineer at the University of Minnesota. Extremely uncommon and it's one of the first times that I have I have, you know, experienced or heard something like this happen. That's why he wondered if something might have gone unnoticed before the accident. Sometimes the soil around the base of it due to different reasons could lose its pressure and then it's easier for the structure to get tilted. And eventually toppled over. Utility poles don't just fall over and kill young fathers on random days of the week. That's absurd. This Minneapolis attorney also tried to get answers, even going so far as to write a letter to the Public Utilities Commission. But the agency told him it doesn't investigate deadly accidents. That leaves Excel to figure out what went wrong. We can't honestly believe that Xcel is going to just, out of the goodness of its heart, Now, I did ask Excel earlier today when it expected to wrap up its investigation. The utility did not have an answer. Randy Kelsey.