how to get rid of a guy wire blocking my access to my backyard

[hrhofmann]

Did what was on top of the vehicle cause the cable break or was it purely coincidental?

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per [e-mail]:

High wind day. Cable was probably 25 feet up there when it broke and just sort of layed itself across my vehicle. Fortunately, I was going very slowly at the time.

[Ed Pawlowski]

If it was less than 14', it would not matter. Some years ago our company truck took out a power line to another building. The electric company send us a bill for the damage. I, in turn, sent them a bill for damages to the trailer (rather minor) and explained it was a wire that drooped below proper level. They paid.

[George]

My friend said he heard car horns and saw cars going slow in front of his house. The cable going to their house ran from their house across the street to a mid-span attachment on the cable carrier cable and then to the tap near the pole. The mid-span attachment broke so the cable was hanging in the street at windshield level.

He called Comcast and they politely informed him they would be there next Monday between noon and 5. It was late evening so he was likely speaking to someone offshore who could only offer that solution. So he called 911 to report the issue with the cable. Multiple fire trucks and equipment showed up. A little later a Comcast truck showed up and repaired the mid-span attachment. Next day my friend got a call from the local Comcast office construction superintendent apologizing for the event. He said 911 had contact info for them but their after hours call center didn't. My friend asked and the guy said the reason he was calling was because the city told them to call. He also said Comcast got dinged for sending out the firetrucks and other equipment.

[George]

A good friend of mine was on the Interstate in PA early morning and hit some ice. He hit the guardrail and did just enough damage that he couldn't drive the car.

Not long after he received a bill for the "damages he caused" to electrical utility equipment. He returned to the site and his cars paint was still on the guard rail so he knew he was in the right spot. He carefully combed the area for any evidence of electrical equipment or any soil that had been disturbed and found none.

He wrote a letter back to the utility requesting the type(s) of equipment that were damaged and where they were located. He went through a chain of mailings before he received a mailing informing him that the matter was closed.

As an aside a mutual friend who works for an agency said there were similar reports from others. Apparently the utility would mine the states accident database and send out bills for damage just because they could. He said he didn't know how far it would be pursued. So if the utility owned the right politicians that could be never.