Why a loose wire at a Toronto crosswalk left people uneasy — and the city dodging questions - Toronto Star

People who saw the wire at Kingston and Scarborough Roads wondered whether it was a live wire that could shock someone.

A loose wire dangles from the crosswalk button on a utility pole at Kingston and Scarborough Roads. A reader feared the wire was conducting electricity.

Is a loose wire dangling from a utility pole next to a pedestrian crossing signal “hot” or not?

Even if it isn’t buzzing with electricity, it makes some people uneasy and leaves them wondering if they’d get zapped by touching it — and why it’s been left to dangle.

Wires are a bit of a thing in this space lately; the previous Fixer column was about a Rogers cable that hadn’t functioned in 13 years but was still hooked up to a house and ran through its backyard. The guy who lives there tried everything to get Rogers to take it down but struck out. It was only after the Star got involved that Rogers removed it.

Of course, readers weighed in with other examples of unwanted wires, including Joe Egan, who keeps a close eye on problems in his east-end neighbourhood and lets me know about them.

Not even a customer service clerk at a Rogers store could figure out how to file a report about a wire that ran across a homeowner’s yard.