(Updated with corrected video; apologies for initial version, which repeated crashes and left some out.)
The corner of Dwight Street and Edgewood Avenue has become car-crash central since the traffic light stopped working right.
So reports Independent reader Sven Martson, who lives there.
Martson caught five separate crashes on video at the corner between Jan. 20 and Feb. 5, when the traffic light stopped working normally. Instead of turning red and green, it just kept flashing yellow in one direction, red in the other. You can watch a highlight reel of that video at the top of the story.
“So far it’s been just fender benders, but it’s just a matter of time before someone is seriously injured,” Martson predicts.
A crew fixed the light. Then on Wednesday the light stopped working right again.
The neighbors have complained to the city and and to Alder Frank Douglass and top neighborhood cop Lt. Brian McDermott, who pressed officials to act. McDermott said he is working on getting a portable stop sign on Dwight Street until the problem’s fixed.
An electrical contractor has been working at the corner in connection with the eight-years-and-still-in-progress Edgewood cycletrack project. City transportation chief Sandeep Aysola said it’s unclear whether that work or another factor caused the signal to revert to fail-safe blinking mode. The signal is decades old, Aysola said.
“Our guys are working on it. They will diagnose the issue. If it’s something related to the contractor, they will notify them so the contractor will do whatever is in the agreement,” he said. If it’s not related to the contractor, a city crew will make the repair.
In the meantime, Alder Douglass said, drivers can also avoid running the light and crashing into each other.
“People have to pay attention and obey the signal, blinking or not,” he said. “Pedestrians, too: Put your cell phone down. You have enough distractions. Don’t distract yourself more than needed. Pay attention. Obey the signal!”