Seattle's Streetlight Poles are Doubling as Bug Zappers

The Capitol Hill streetlight/shock device (Photo: CHS)

On Thanksgiving, a woman walking her dog on Queen Anne watched in horror when he stepped on the plate at the base of a streetlight and was killed by electrocution. It was a terrible, but freak accident, said Seattle City Light, upon inspecting what went wrong.

"We discovered that the original installation in 2006 did not include proper grounding of the four lights," said superintendent Jorge Carrasco. "We want the public to be assured that this was an isolated incident."

It was true that, so far as anyone knew, this was the first dog to be killed by streetlight electrocution. But...City Light couldn't really assure anyone, in the actual sense of the word, that there was no further danger because they needed to inspect other streetlights first. 

Once they did, a troubling trend emerged. They found another streetlight "leaking" unsafe levels of electricity in High Point. That's not the troubling part per se; that would come when the Carrasco, the "city's highest-paid executive" called the Queen Anne and High Point problems "two isolated incidents." 

As CHS reported, City Light soon found three more dangerous light poles discharging electricity--60 to 105 volts. Perhaps more upsettingly, City Light didn't actually find these poles--a contractor did, who took it upon himself to go check on what he estimated would be trouble spots due to aging infrastructure. Two of the poles were 30 to 40 years old, and the third was even older.

Meanwhile, City Light had inspected some 270 light poles without finding any problems in "all of the streetlights at the High Point Development (170) and all of the streetlights at the GreenBridge Development (which actually is in King County, but a part of our service territory - there are 100)." 

On Wednesday, a sixth pole was found in Greenwood, discharging "120 volts, enough to kill," reported the Seattlepi.com. So far from being an "isolated incident," streetlights that could electrocute you have been found in Queen Anne, Greenwood, Capitol Hill, Central District, and First Hill. 

In total, there are 20,000 light poles and 10,000 streetlight vault covers to check on, so this could take a while. You've been deputized by City Light to report any odd behavior from streetlights in your neighborhood:

Get in touch with us immediately! Call us (206) 684-7056--or go online to: www.seattle.gov/light/streetlights

Some things for people to look for:

1) A streetlight that is on during the day

2) A streetlight that "flickers" at night

3) Any sense of "tingling" when near a metal streetlight pole or a metal groundcover plate