CLEVELAND — Northeast Ohio safety activist Robert Carillio has been reporting highway and neighborhood lighting outages for over a decade, so he took action when he saw lighting not operating on Cleveland's Dead Man's Curve.
Carillio told News 5 motorists have been driving into darkness as they make their way in and out of the innerbelt curve because a series of lights posted under bridge overpasses have been broken since the beginning of November.
"We’re not talking about just one or two lights here and there; we’re talking about large swaths of lights out, consistently out," Carillio said. “It's a lot of shadows, a lot of bridges to go under, a lot of dark and dead spots, and especially at the curve, we all know that.”
Rashourn Arrington of Euclid told News 5 that the lighting outages at the innerbelt curve have him concerned about safety since he travels the route with his two grandchildren and new wife of three weeks.
“It's one of the deadliest places that we need lighting is the Dead Man's Curve area," Arrington said. “My message is that I hope that in all places where we’re traveling, especially in the city, that the lights are working especially in dark places.
Carillio said he reported the lighting issues to the Ohio Department of Transportation, which he said responded immediately to his safety concerns.
Carrillio urged all motorists to report highway and residential lighting outages to ODOT or Cleveland Public Power by calling the agencies or contacting them using online resources. Carillio said motorists should take note of outage street or highway route locations, mile marker information, or reference exit ramps when filing a lighting report.
“It’s very important because it just can’t be just one person, if people see that, they need to call it in as well; I mean ODOT or CPP, they can’t be everywhere all of the time," Carillio said. “Since a lot of these lighting outages involve the city and ODOT, they need to be on the same page because ODOT might have lights under the bridge, the city might have lights on top of the bridge.”
News 5 contacted ODOT about the innerbelt curve lighting issues, and it quickly responded. ODOT said it is aware of the lighting problems and already has the location on its repair schedule in the coming days.
Cleveland Public Power issued instructions on how to best report a lighting problem when drivers are not behind the wheel. ODOT told News 5 that if it is an immediate traffic hazard or emergency, drivers should call either 911 or alert the Ohio State Highway Patrol at #677. If the issue is not an emergency, they can report it on the ODOT damage report webpage. ODOT also issued a Thanksgiving safety and travel forecast for the long holiday weekend.
Meanwhile, Carillio hopes lighting repairs at Dead Man's Curve will occur as soon as possible.
“I consistently travel that route, and it creates a lot of dark and dead spots, and you don’t know what you’re getting into," Carillio said. “A lot of people just barrel through there extremely fast, people racing, and we all know when trucks go too fast on that curve what happens.”
