FAIRMOUNT — The family of a St. Joseph woman who was killed last year in a freak accident at the Jamaica High School football field has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the Jamaica school district and the Eastern Illini Electric Cooperative.

The lawsuit was filed last week in Vermilion County Circuit Court and alleges that the school district and electric cooperative were negligent in the death of Tammy Walsh, 36, of St. Joseph. The plaintiffs are represented by attorney Gregory Thomas Condon with Wang, Leonard and Condon in Chicago.

Mrs. Walsh was killed Aug. 28 when a transformer pole fell, striking her, while she was on the east side of the football field at Jamaica High School. The school was hosting a football jamboree involving several freshman teams, including Salt Fork, St. Joseph-Ogden, Watseka, East Central and Westville. Jamaica High School is on the Fairmount-Sidell Road, about halfway between the two towns.

Mrs. Walsh was pronounced dead at the scene. She was the St. Joseph-Ogden cheerleading coach, and her son, Dalton Walsh, was a freshman on the St. Joseph-Ogden football team.

Dalton Walsh, and Mrs. Walsh's father-in-law, Charles Robin Gray of Champaign, were with her at the time of the accident and were also struck when the pole fell. Dalton Walsh was hospitalized with injuries, and Gray was injured, too, but was treated and released.

The lawsuit requests a jury trial, seeks judgment of more than $50,000, and names as plaintiffs, Busey Trust, the administrator of Mrs. Walsh's estate; Tim Walsh, husband of Mrs. Walsh and father of Dalton Walsh; and Gray and his wife, Carol Gray.

According to police, Christine Bowser of Ogden was leaving the jamboree in her Chevrolet Trailblazer and struck a guy wire attached to a utility pole. The tension between a cable connecting that pole to another about 50 yards away caused the second pole, a transformer pole, to snap and fall behind bleachers on the east side of the field. Bowser was not injured.

According to the 33-count lawsuit, both wooden power poles were more than 50 years old and the one holding the transformer was deteriorated, decayed or rotten, posing an imminent danger. There were no barriers, cones or warning signs around the utility poles or the guy wires, and at least one of the guy wires on the transformer pole had previously been struck by vehicles or other equipment and was bent and weakened, according to the court documents.

Before the accident, the electric cooperative had replaced the transformer on the pole that fell, and one year before the accident, had replaced two wooden poles adjacent to the football field, because they were in a deteriorated condition, according to the suit.

After the accident, the electric cooperative removed several wooden light poles bordering the football field and removed another rotten wooden power pole from the school grounds, according to the suit.

The documents also allege that Bowser had to drive close to the power pole and guy wires to avoid a drag and harrow, agricultural equipment for leveling land that had been placed there by the school district.

The lawsuit states that the school district and electric cooperative were aware of all the alleged conditions. It states that they were at fault, because they should have known the condition of the poles, and failed to inspect, maintain and remove poles and should have had barriers around the poles and guy wires or had the electrical wires relocated away from the area that's frequented by spectators, players, coaches and school personnel or had the lines buried underground. It also alleges that the school district should have known that the harrow would cause vehicles to drive closer to the poles and guy wires and should have made the area free of obstacles, directed traffic elsewhere and had a safe traffic control plan.

The first hearing in the case is scheduled for July 11 in circuit court.