Pedestrian death prompts examination of street lights
NEWTON -- A street light stands by the spot on Woodland Road where 22-year-old Kevin Flaherty was struck and killed by a car as he was walking back to his Lasell College dormitory shortly after midnight last September.
The night of the accident the light was out, according to the police report of the accident. No charges were filed in connection with the accident, and the dark street light was not found to be a contributing factor.
But the incident has prompted Newton to address its recent problems maintaining street lights.
Lasell students conducted a petition drive asking for better lighting on Woodland Road and met with the mayor earlier this month.
"We're all very saddened by the tragedy," said Jeremy Solomon, spokesman for Mayor David B. Cohen.
"If any good could come of such a terrible incident, it is that we are reforming our street light policy. . . Obviously, the maintenance of our street lights is a matter of public safety."
The list of street lights with burned-out bulbs or faulty wiring has been growing for more than a year. No one knows for sure how many there are, as only now is the city preparing a maintenance roster of its 8,486 street lights.
The city said it has outstanding citizen complaints for about 250 lights, about 3 percent of the total.
A Globe West survey suggests the percentage could be much higher. Nighttime drives last week down major thoroughfares in eight neighborhoods -- Newton Centre, Auburndale, West Newton, Lower Falls, Nonantum, Newtonville, Newton Highlands, and Upper Falls -- showed:
More than a quarter of the lights out on Walnut Street between Crafts Street and Route 9.
Some 15 percent out on westbound Commonwealth Avenue from Hammond to Lexington streets.
More than 10 percent out on Winchester Street.
About 10 percent out on Route 16 from the Wellesley to the Watertown lines.
On some roads, the percentage of outages varied widely. Westbound on Commonwealth Avenue , between Walnut and Chestnut streets , nearly a third of the lights were dark, but all were working on the block between Auburn and Lexington streets.
Several factors contribute to the problem, according to Sanford Pooler , the city's chief administrative officer.
As of July 1, 2005, the city terminated its street-light maintenance contract with Wellesley Municipal Light Plant. The mayor said the city would save $86,000 annually by turning the job over to its firefighters.
At the time, officials thought a single two-person crew would be enough to do the job. Now, Pooler, said, they realize that two crews are probably needed.
For almost a year, firefighters were waiting for delivery of a bucket truck. Orders had been backlogged because of demand in the aftermath of the two Gulf Coast hurricanes. The truck finally arrived in April.
Further hindering repairs were disputes between the city and
NStar said the city had been lax about reporting wiring problems, and the two parties disagreed on who was responsible for the wiring between the manholes and the base of the lights.
Earlier this month, the city and NStar resolved the problems -- for now.
While still maintaining it has no legal obligation to do so, the city agreed to take care of the backlog of disputed wiring problems. In addition, it has instructed firefighters when reporting problems to NStar to give the number of the pole, not just its general location.
"We had a productive meeting with the mayor," said NStar spokesman Mike Durand . "It certainly seems we have moved in the right direction."
Pooler said that the city still was still working on a database listing the status of street lights. He said officials have yet to decide whether to fix lights by focusing on particular neighborhoods or as each faulty bulb is reported.
Meanwhile, the city is in the process of replacing all of its mercury lights with high-pressure sodium lights to comply with a 2008 deadline set by the federal Environmental Protection Agency, Pooler said.
A third of the lights have already been changed; the aldermen have been asked to approve spending $1.5 million to replace the rest.
"In one fell swoop, we'll have new bulbs," Pooler said. "That should signal a major improvement in light quality."
The accident that killed Kevin Flaherty occurred between 173 and 174 Woodland at about 1:20 a.m. The Norfolk resident was killed by a car driven by a 22-year-old woman. Police have not identified her.
Flaherty had been returning to his dorm, Case House, after attending a birthday party, fellow students said.
"The police report mentioned the street light being out at the time of the accident, but it is not attributing that as a cause of the accident," said Solomon, the Newton spokesman.
According to the Middlesex district attorney's office, no criminal charges will be filed in connection with the accident.
The street light has since been fixed.
Flaherty's parents, Michael and Mary Flaherty , have made it their mission to help other Lasell students encourage the city to make Woodland -- a winding, dark street -- safer.
"When they go away to college, you expect them to be safe," Michael Flaherty said last week in a telephone interview .
"You don't expect them to get killed by crossing the street."
Flaherty said he did not realize the street light was out at the time his son died. Regardless, he said he would continue his quest.
"We're trying to work with the town and the students to make sure it doesn't happen again," Flaherty said.
Connie Paige can be reached at cpaige@globe.com. 
