Street lights fail in swathes of Wellington

Commuters in Wellington were left in the dark overnight on Tuesday with street lights failing to light up.

Large swathes of the Western suburbs and parts of the central business district had no street lights, with only vehicle headlights and traffic lights to light the way.

Karori resident Ellie Bauer said she nearly hit a pedestrian on Tuesday evening because they were wearing dark clothing.

‘‘He stopped and I went slightly sideways to get around him,’’ she said. ‘‘It’s lucky he was looking. If he’d been on his phone or something, it could have been a tragic accident, because without the street lights you just can’t see anything.’’

A Wellington Electricity spokesman said there was a fault with the control system in the Karori Zone Substation.

The fault affected the street lights in Karori and surrounding areas, such as Ngaio, Wilton and the western parts of Wellington, he said. Lights at the Wadestown shops to Crofton Downs and parts of Thorndon were also out. ‘‘Technicians are working to correct the issue,’’ he said yesterday.

The Wellington City Council was told by Wellington Electricity that it was expecting repairs to the system to be completed by the end of yesterday.

Dark streets are not uncommon in Wellington. Since 2018 Stuff has reported on mass outages around the capital city due to faults.

The Victoria University of Wellington Student Association’s wellbeing and sustainability officer, Sophie Dixon, said students eagerly wanted city safety, and lighting was a key tool to prevent sexual violence.

‘‘With WCC’s commitment to ending sexual violence in Wellington and promotion towards shifting to greener transport options like walking and cycling, the council should really be getting on top of it.’’

A separate lighting issue has also been affecting lights adjacent to the Karori tunnel, which has since been repaired, the Wellington Electricity spokesman said.

Residents could get in touch with the council’s contact centre to report faults by phone, email, text or through the FixIt app.