yup thats the game's laziness, sometimes it wont bother to reload the original map, so things can be changed until you switch to another island and back again.
is this SP or MP?
how did you turn the light off?
objectID switchLight "Off"?
if SP, simply put
objectID switchLight "ON" in on activation, of a trigger, condition "!alive player" w/out quotes.
if you, like me, use
nearestobject ["logic1","streetlamp"] switchlight "Off"
then "deleteVehicle logic1", or ..switchlight "On" ; and so on for all your logics.
Hope that helps. write back if not.
dave
edit: i just noticed, that will only work if the player stops playing after dying. well thats how to put the lights back on, fraid i cant think of anything else now.