A retired elementary school teacher out for a morning walk was killed when a 45-foot wooden pole snapped and struck her at a Philadelphia high school’s track, according to a wrongful death lawsuit her family filed last week accusing the city’s school district of negligence.
Paula Budin, 73, died on December 5, 2024, after she was struck by the pole while walking at Roxborough High School’s track, a facility that is generally open to the public, according to a civil complaint filed in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas. Her sister, Joyce Siegel, brought the case last Friday, alleging that Philadelphia’s school district and a facilities inspection contractor failed to prevent the fatal accident.
The lawsuit paints a grim picture of Budin’s final minutes. A witness spotted her lying on the grass unresponsive and called 911 just after 11 a.m. that day. Paramedics who rushed to the scene found the former teacher lying unconscious on the grass with a head wound, according to the complaint.
A Routine Walk Turns Fatal
Emergency responders attempted life-saving measures at the track before transporting Budin to Temple University Hospital. She was pronounced dead about an hour later, the complaint states.
An autopsy concluded that her cause of death was “multiple blunt force injuries,” and the manner of death was ruled an accident, according to the lawsuit. The family’s complaint alleges that Budin was “violently struck” by the pole as she walked.
The suddenness of the incident underscores its rarity. A woman doing something as ordinary as taking a walk on a public track was, in an instant, the victim of a falling structure that stood 45 feet tall.
Budin, who had spent her career as an elementary teacher, was known to walk regularly at the Roxborough High School track. The facility’s public accessibility made it a routine destination for neighborhood residents seeking exercise and fresh air.
Questions Over Inspection and Age
Central to the family’s case is the condition and age of the poles at the site. Attorneys for Joyce Siegel say they inspected the four poles at the track and determined that the one that snapped was manufactured in 1997, according to the civil complaint.
The lawsuit also alleges that the school district removed all four of the poles after Budin’s death. The complaint names both the School District of Philadelphia and the company retained to inspect the school’s facilities, arguing that negligence on the part of one or both parties contributed to the deadly outcome.
The legal filing frames the tragedy as preventable, contending that proper inspection and maintenance of aging equipment on a track open to public foot traffic should have flagged any hazard before it became lethal. The family’s lawyers are seeking to establish that the defendants knew or should have known about the deteriorating condition of the pole and failed to take action.
The complaint raises questions about how frequently the poles were inspected, what criteria were used to assess their structural integrity, and whether the district had policies in place for replacing equipment that had been in service for nearly three decades.
A Life Remembered
Budin, listed in records as Paula Siegel Budin, was an elementary teacher and a longtime Philadelphia resident. She was the daughter of the late Sidney Siegel and Eva Himelstein Siegel, and she is survived by her sisters, Joyce Siegel and Gail Kelner, according to her published obituary.
A funeral service was held on Wednesday December 11, 2024, at 11:30 a.m. at the Rosenberg Funeral Chapel, Inc. at 348 S. River St. in Wilkes-Barre. Interment followed at Workman Circle Cemetery in Shavertown.
The wrongful death lawsuit now moving through the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas seeks to hold the district and the inspection company accountable for what the family describes as a failure to keep a publicly accessible facility safe. As with any civil complaint, the allegations reflect one side of the case, and the named defendants have not yet responded in court to the claims.
For Budin’s relatives, the filing represents an effort to answer how a walk at a neighborhood high school track ended in a death that authorities ruled an accident — and whether the aging equipment that caused it should have been replaced or secured long before it fell. The lawsuit seeks damages and accountability for a loss the family argues was entirely preventable.
The case will proceed through the civil court system, where a judge or jury will ultimately determine whether the School District of Philadelphia and its contracted inspection company bear legal responsibility for the December 2024 tragedy.