A Calgary woman says a stretch of burned-out street lights in her community is a second pedestrian death waiting to happen.
Lorena Stone says the street lights on a block along 64 Ave. N.E. just before Falconridge Blvd. have been out for over three months.
A pedestrian who was jaywalking at that location was killed last December, and Stone says it could be just a matter of time before it happens again since the city has yet to replace the bulbs.
Get breaking National news
“The biggest fear I have is the fact that someone is going to get hit again,” says Stone. “At the end of the day, the safety of the people should be there. I just don’t see it right now.”
A spokesperson for the city says it relies on Calgarians to alert the city about the problem.
“The reality is with 90 thousand street lights in the city of Calgary we can’t be everywhere,” says the city’s Sean Somers. “So this is actually a great example of
what we’d like to happen. A citizen is concerned, they call 311, and we are able to get there sooner than later and get it repaired.”
Somers adds a repair can take longer if it involves digging up underground wiring.
There are about 90,000 street lights in Calgary.
City crews are currently keeping the outage rate below one per cent, or at about 800 lights.
Comments