AUSTIN (April 27, 2009)--The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission will investigate toppled light poles to try to determine the cause of the failures.

The decision announced last week came after the Austin American-Statesman reported on toppled light poles in Texas and elsewhere.

One fell over recently at the Bill Power Stadium in Uniontown, Pa., where an 80-foot athletic light tower crashed to the ground, crushing bleachers.

The stadium was empty at the time.

Two weeks ago, an American-Statesman investigation found that in the past three years eight athletic lighting poles, all designed and fabricated by the same Fort Worth companies, had fallen across the country.

The newspaper since has confirmed that five other poles made and designed by the same companies have fallen, the Uniontown pole among them.

No one has been injured.

Two polls fell in Central Texas, in the Hays and Round Rock school districts.

Poles have also fallen in Kentucky, Mississippi, South Dakota and Massachusetts.