BATON ROUGE - A dark overpass where a man was killed in a hit-and-run will not see its tower lights fixed anytime soon.

Back in July, a vehicle hit 39-year-old John Le Nguyen on the Greenwell Springs Road overpass where it crosses Airline Highway.

"I just wish this was different, that this didn't happen," Nguyen's sister, Martina Brooks, said. "He's not just another number. He's a human being."

Nguyen's family wants the person who hit him to come forward. They also want more light to better illuminate the overpass.

Three months ago, WBRZ went out to the overpass. There, crews found one half-lit tower operational. At the time, city-parish officials told WBRZ that parts had been ordered with Entergy to make repairs.

Last week, none of the tower lights functioned on the overpass.

EBR Transportation and Drainage Director Fred Raiford said the fix is more complicated than people realize. Ideally, Raiford said, the city wants to replace lights at key points around the city with solar lights, but the cost remains high, estimated at $10,000 just to replace a single tower and its lights.

"Once we make the commitment to solar, then everything that would be on Airline Highway, even lights that are on local roadways, we would look at using solar for the future," Raiford said.

The priority, Raiford said, remains I-110 from US 61 to the I-10 interchange. However, he said, if that project moves forward, he would consider ordering five more lights to replace the tower lights at the Greenwell Springs-Airline Highway overpass. Raiford remains confident that replacing the lights along I-110 as well as the overpass could be accomplished.

"We have tower lights all along the interstate. We have tower lights sitting on Greenwell Springs and Airline," Raiford said. "That is the location where we have them. If you're going to order, replace something, that has to be looked at too."

However, he said the project remains a couple of years away. In the meantime, the lights there remain out.

"It's still pitch black over there. It is just so unfair," Brooks said.