Woman dies alone after broken telegraph pole left her 'unable to call for help'

18 December 2023 , 07:39

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The pole was damaged earlier this month (Image: Ceri Coombes)

A vulnerable pensioner died alone as she was unable to call for help when a telegraph pole was damaged - and was not fixed for over a week.

Margaret Green couldn't use her personal alarm, which vulnerable people can use to get support if they need help or find themselves in an emergency, since a car crashed into the pole in Maerdy, south Wales, on Friday December 1. People who knew Margaret, as well as other residents with personal alarms, had complained to BT Openreach to fix the structure - but it's claimed nothing was done. Margaret died in her home on Sunday December 10, friends claim.

Ceri Coombes, who lives nearby and who Margaret's family gave permission to talk about her death, said she even contacted her MP on Wednesday December 6. Chris Bryant, Labour MP for Rhondda since 2001, said he and residents had chased BT Openreach to mend the pole since it fell. He described Margaret's death as "very tragic".

Neighbours living in Maerdy said they raised concerns (Ceri Coombes)

Speaking to Wales Online, Ceri said: "I started to get a bit concerned because we had some elderly neighbours who had [personal alarms] which run off the phone line. I rung my provider and they said it was Openreach’s problem and it went back and forth a few times. I kept going around in circles so I contacted MP Chris Bryant’s office [on December 6]. I spoke to his office and was told they would see what they could do. I relayed how important [personal alarms] are. I called back the next day and they said they are waiting for a department to get back in touch. I thought: ‘Well that’s another day these people will be without their lifelines’."

A neighbour told Ceri on December 11 that Margaret had died the previous day. Ceri said: "My neighbour rang me asking if I had heard back from anyone about the telegraph pole. She said it’s too late for Margaret as she had sadly passed away. What happened was that the carer had gone to see her in the morning and found her. A paramedic came and said he could see that she had tried to press her [personal alarm]. He was really not happy about this."

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Ceri described Margaret as a “lovely and pleasant woman” and said she deserved more than this. She said: “She was a lovely lady. She’s lived here for donkey’s years. She was always watering her garden and she never did any harm to anyone.” She said she understands that there is no guarantee that Margaret’s life would have been saved, but said a working alarm would have allowed someone to be with her. She added: “Nobody can answer if we could have saved her, but at least she wouldn't have had to go on her own if her alarm wasn’t working. I don’t think people should go through something like this and the most frustrating thing about this is that it seemed like nobody cared.”

Chris Bryant MP, who represents the area, said the case was 'very tragic' (VICKIE FLORES/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

Ceri said the whole street had been without internet and TV for the first two weeks of December. Although she said it was inconvenient, she said that was the least of their concerns when there were vulnerable people “without working [personal alarms]”. She said: “I need the internet for work, but I would even put that on the back burner by using the hotspot on my phone. That’s what we’ve had to do - as well as buy extra data - to have some kind of normality in the house. But that wasn't the issue, it was these [personal alarms] that were really bothering us."

A spokesperson for Openreach said: “We’re deeply saddened to hear this news and our thoughts are with those affected. We were made aware on the 3rd December by the customer’s service provider that their service had been impacted by a road traffic accident damaging our telegraph pole. One of our engineers attended the scene the next day to survey the damage and we made arrangements to replace the damaged pole as soon as possible - by Friday 8th December.

“Unfortunately, we weren’t able to complete the work that day due to safety concerns. The busy, one-way street is close to a school and it was congested with parked cars, making it impossible to replace the pole safely. We also looked at the possibility of providing a temporary service, but there was no safe option to run a cable across the road. A decision was therefore made to return when the school was closed, with the work due to be completed this weekend. As with all instances involving customers who are flagged to us as vulnerable we’ve been keeping the service provider updated throughout this process.”

Sir Chris Bryant MP said: “‘This is a very tragic case and I would like to express my sincere condolences to the lady’s family. I’m grateful to the person who contacted my office on 6 December notifying us of the crash and of a male neighbour who relied on the connection for his alarm. We contacted BT Openreach immediately by phone and email and explained that there was a gentleman relying on the service not just for telephone and internet, but for their personal lifeline. We followed up again on Friday and BT Openreach responded over the weekend that they would fix the problem as soon as possible, including making provision for the gentleman concerned.’

A Welsh Ambulance Service spokesperson said: “We were called at approximately 8.40am on Monday 11 December to reports of a medical emergency at an address in Maerdy. We sent one rapid response vehicle to the scene.”

Lucy John