LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — This story was inspired by my own commute. Like most of you, I crisscross the valley every day, and just about every night on my drive home, I find myself squinting at something that's annoying, distracting, and honestly a little dangerous. And it's been happening for way too long.
You've probably seen one of those warnings before a movie or TV show alerting sensitive viewers to sequences of flashing, flickering or strobing lights that have the potential to cause nausea, headaches, even seizures.
With that warning, you know you can look away or close your eyes if it starts happening on your screen. That’s not exactly an option when you’re behind the wheel.
Along the north side of Desert Inn Road from El Capitan to Hualapai, and along the east side of Hualapai Way between Desert Inn and Sahara Avenue, multiple streetlights rapidly flash, creating a strobe-light effect that turns your nightly drive into something resembling a low-budget music video.
Jokes aside, it’s a dangerous driving situation at night — and it’s something I first noticed more than a year ago. I assumed the city would notice too. And fix it. But… they didn’t.
After a viewer reached out to me about it as part of my "Darcy, what's the deal?" segment, I went to the City of Las Vegas with some simple questions:
Why is this happening? Why has it been going on so long? And when will it finally be fixed?
Turns out, the city does know about it. And while a fix is in the works… it’s still in the works. City of Las Vegas public works says the flashing is "a defect in the newer LED Bell style fixtures that were swapped out as an upgrade project. A total of 168 of the higher wattage fixtures will need to be re-fitted to complete the repairs."
The city tells me it expects to start receiving the replacement fixtures from the manufacturer in March and April.
In the meantime, they say the interim solution is to remove and temporarily replace the flashing fixtures. And wouldn't you know it, that interim fix came at the speed of light. As we arrived to get video Thursday night, city crews pulled up and got to work--literally one day after I asked them about the problem that had persisted for over a year.
And here’s the bright side — it won’t cost taxpayers anything. The manufacturer is covering the city’s labor and vehicle usage costs and supplying the materials.
If you’ve been wondering about something around town, send me your questions through this form or click on the banner below, and I’ll do my best to get you answers — and maybe a few fixes.
