Beaumont, TX — September 11, 2024, Heather Kitchens was injured as the result of a utility pole accident at around 8:30 a.m. along Hazel Avenue.

According to initial details about the accident, it happened off the corner of Hazel Avenue and North 10th Street.

Investigators said that an initial incident occurred involved a BISD school bus going eastbound on Hazel. While doing so, the bus apparently caught a low-hanging utility line, bringing down the line where it reportedly became stuck on a parked car. This left the line stretched taut across the lanes of travel

After this, 53-year-old Heather Kitchens was on a Harley-Davidson going eastbound. Heather Kitchens then struck the low-hanging wire and was reportedly seriously injured as a result. Right now, additional details are unavailable.

Commentary by Attorney Michael Grossman

There may be an instinct for some to just write all this off as a shocking, unavoidable chain of events. However, it's important to recreate the series of events and pinpoint exactly how all of this could have been avoided. Some may think that goes back to the bus hitting the line, and that may be a part of it. If the line was clearly visible and in the path of the bus, it could be that driving into it was totally avoidable.

More likely, though, there were issues with the low-hanging line itself. Was this a known problem? Had locals complained about it? Was it something that happened overnight during a storm that couldn't be addressed quickly enough? Were local officials dragging their feet in fixing the issue?

At the end of the day, it's pretty rare for an accident like this to be some out-of-nowhere, unavoidable event. It's possible, but it's not likely. That's why it's important to carefully reconstruct these events and determine what steps could or should have been taken to prevent a nearly deadly accident.