CBS2-Chicago reported that yet another light pole in Chicago went down, blocking three lanes of traffic on Lake Shore Drive on what was one of the busiest holiday traffic days of the year – November 27th, 2019 – the day before Thanksgiving.
Although winds gusted off the lake in what is known as the Windy City, Tara Molina reported that a light pole buckled over and fell right into the middle of southbound traffic heading into the city near the Gold Coast. No one was reported hurt.
Molina reported that witnesses said they observed that the light pole was rusted out at the base. The incident caused Chicago police to block three lanes of traffic, which snarled the already busy travel times the day before Thanksgiving.
Just last week, another light pole came crashing down in Chicago’s Loop near the State of Illinois Building known as the Thompson Center, striking a woman and sending her to the hospital in an ambulance. And CBS2-Chicago reported that the week before that a city traffic light pole snapped and fell onto a sport utility vehicle on Stony Island Avenue at 73rd Street destroying a person’s car.
In fact, CBS2-Chicago has been following this story since 2015 and has uncovered that hundreds of light poles have rusted and collapsed, according to reports made to the city. Plastic decorative moldings have been placed around the base of many of these poles and the rusted bottoms are not apparent.
CBS2-Chicago investigators have stated they have brought this to the attention of experts who have said that city inspections of all city light poles are long overdue.