The pair of streetlights near where two people were killed earlier this month were out of operation at the time of their deaths, according a Prince George man who drives through the area every morning on his way to work.
Chuck Lamond said he called city hall on the day of the deaths of Patricia Sims-McLelan, 50, and David Sakawsky, 49, to say a streetlight overlooking a crosswalk across 22nd at Nicholson and a streetlight at the corner of Ogilvie and 22nd were both out.
According to the B.C. Coroners Service, Sims-McLelan and Sakawsky were crossing Nicholson Street just before 7 a.m. on Oct. 9 when they were struck by a commercial tractor-trailer making a left hand turn from 22nd Street onto Nicholson.
Lamond is convinced the lack of lighting played a role in the deaths. Even if it wasn't a factor, Lamond said they still need to be fixed, particularly because it's a high traffic area close to the College of New Caledonia and Prince George Secondary School.
Lamond, who once sat on the city's accessibility advisory committee, kept an eye on the lights during his morning commute and called the city again a few days later when he saw nothing had been done.
That was when he was told it's B.C. Hydro's responsibility to carry out the repairs.
Hydro spokesman Bob Gammer confirmed as much, but added the city forwards calls about street lights to the utility.
Gammer said he could not say with complete certainty that the lights were out on the day of the deaths. However, he said Hydro received a request for repairs from the city on Oct. 14, three business days after the incident.
From there, he said crews seek to have repairs completed within 10 business days. (Gammer said Friday, after this story was published, that the two lights have been repaired).
Dealing with outages and conducting maintenance work to keep the power going take a higher priority, Gammer said.
"The other thing, too, is that it's more efficient to gather up a group of street light work orders and deal with them all at once rather than go out every day and do just one here and there across the city," Gammer said. "We do try to get them done in 10 days but we also try to be efficient about that and do a whole bunch at once and so that may carry us on beyond 10 business days."
He said those who see a streetlight that's out of commission should continue to call city hall at 250-561-7600. In turn, city staff will ask for the pole's tag number but if the caller doesn't have that, staff will ask for the nearest street address.
Gammer said the city handles such calls because it's the customer.
"Regardless of who owns the lights, the city pays for the electricity for these lights to light their streets, so it makes sense that as the customer, the city would be involved and be the point of contact for the burnt out light," Gammer said.
Anyone who wants to get a new street light installed must contact the city, which makes the final decision.
"We're not going to tell the city, 'we've put up an extra 20 lights and now you have to pay for it,'" Gammer said. "It has to come from the city because they're the ones that are going to have to pay."
Across the province, he said Hydro owns about 90,000 street lights and municipalities own a further 238,000.
