Over 8 traffic lights are down from corner Fuel Road and Harmony to Hamilton Street
Traffic lights down on Fuel Road.
Last year, Coronationville was in the news for the constant vandalism of the Westbury Pedestrian Bridge as well as cable theft.
Residents from the area also stressed that the millions of rands which was used for the bridge could have been used to upgrade the streets, sidewalks, electrical cable issues, stormwater drains and so much more in the community. Unemployment and drugs seemed to be the main forces behind this crimes.
Over the last three months, it seems as though the criminals were done stealing all the cables and metal from the bridge on Fuel Road.
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The criminals found a new object to vandalise on Fuel Road and that is breaking the traffic lights to steal cables and the sim cards that are for the traffic lights.
The traffic lights are all down starting from corner Fuel Road and Harmony Street all the way down to Hamilton Street. According to a source from Coronationville, these traffic lights have been down since November.
“I’ve heard that the syndicate operates at about 12 am and people around here hear all the chopping but I don’t understand why they not doing anything about it.
“The perpetrators have to chop the cement out in order to get to the cables and I’m not sure where the sim card is. Apparently, the Sim cards are active for four years and are untraceable so this is why the perpetrators are after them too,” said the source.
After research has been done, reports show that the Sim cards come with a modem which allows engineers to receive messages when the traffic light is malfunctioning.
The sim card and the modem are, however, not found in the traffic lights but are placed in a control box not too far from the intersection.
On corner Fuel Road and Harmony street, there are about eight traffic lights that are down, if you estimate the traffic lights that are all down in that one road, one can say that there are possibly over twenty of them that are down. Twenty traffic lights can roughly cost half a million rands to replace.
According to the source, there have been no accidents yet, but pedestrians crossing the road have to be extra cautious because motorists barely give them a chance to cross as they go through the intersections. Another concern with the traffic lights being down is that now that schools have reopened traffic may just be a nightmare.
Communications officer for the Sophiatown police said that the public must report such crimes and can call 10111 or the Sophiatown police station on 011 670 6300.
