BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — The effects of that winter storm that brought 70+ mph winds are still being felt on Buffalo’s West Side.
The traffic lights at the intersection of Grant Street and W. Delavan Avenue have been out for more than 10 days, operating as flashing yellows and reds. That change is leading to crashes.
WATCH: 'Very dangerous': Traffic light outage causes crashes and confusion on Buffalo's West Side
"It's just a very dangerous situation," said Justin Karcher, who lives on W. Delavan. "I work from home, so I hear like honking."
Karcher is the one who told us about this on X, and he met me to share concerns about how this is affecting his neighborhood.
"It's been pretty terrible; there's already been two accidents. A car was pushed to that corner," said Karcher. "I am worried someone is gonna get hurt."
When I was at the intersection, I met the owner of the store that was hit in the crash pictured above and a near victim.
"Actually, I was inside the store, came out the same time the car gets hit," said Ali Fadhel.
Fadhel wants to see the intersection be a four-way blinking red.
"Don't put the light yellow, especially in Buffalo. There is a lot of people coming from other countries, they don't understand what that means," said Fadhel.
What's the solution?
While I was out there, I also saw a DPW worker go in and make some changes, but after he left, the lights remained the same.
"This intersection was part of the issue with that wind storm; our department's been out here a few times to reset it," said Nolan Skipper, Commissioner of the DPW for Buffalo. "Realized we have to replace the whole controller, so we're gonna get on that now."
Skipper has been on the job for a few days now and says this is one of the last traffic lights that needs to be fixed after the storm.
He says it'll be fixed in a couple of days, but how can the city prevent it from happening again?
"The biggest thing is upgrading our facilities," said Skipper. "Grant Street is on our radar for a full corridor replacement, curbs, sidewalks, pavement. That's the bigger picture is to do all the signals and not just one-off situations."
