Avalon Park Residents Demand Better Street Lighting After Numerous Accidents

By Orlando Personal Injury Attorney on April 27, 2017

Avalon Park, a small, unincorporated town close to Orlando, has its residents up in arms after the most recent accident along Avalon Park Boulevard left a 15-year-old high school student dead and police searching for the driver of the motorcycle that killed him. This accident, which we wrote about in an earlier blog post, has been jarring for the residents of this close-knit town. As a result, Avalon Park residents are now being even more vigilant in their demand for proper lighting along their streets.

The lack of street lights throughout central Florida, and Orange County in particular, is not a recent issue. In Avalon Park alone there have been numerous accidents along the darkened streets, and residents say that they frequently hear people crashing while trying to properly maneuver around corners, unable as they are to see brick walls, telephone poles, or, as is the case mentioned above, young people playing.

According to an unnamed spokesperson for Orange County, Avalon Park is just one on a list of towns throughout Orange County that are in need of a lighting upgrade. This list is connected to a five-year program that is seeking to provide adequate lighting for these towns along their most heavily trafficked roads. At the time of this writing, the program is on year three, which means that Avalon Park may still need to wait two whole years before the lighting they so desperately need is installed.

When it is complete, the project is supposed to have provided essential lighting upgrades and installations to all roads that contain four and six lanes throughout Orange County. The contract for this project has been handed to two separate power companies: OUC and Duke Energy. They say that Avalon Park should have its lighting needs addressed in the fourth year of the program, with the new lights being installed throughout the small town by October of 2017. While a good development, this still means that arterial roads will be dark for another five months at the very least, potentially leading to far more fatal accidents and life altering collisions.

James O. Cunningham

Since 1977, personal injury lawyer James Cunningham has provided effective legal advocacy to people who are injured through the negligent actions of another person or entity throughout the Central Florida area. He fights to obtain recoveries for his clients’ physical and emotional pain and suffering and pursues his clients’ personal injury cases with a commitment to excellence and impeccable preparation.