Traffic light accident: 'Workers at crash scene in minutes'
HIGHWAYS workers were at the scene of a broken traffic light where two cars crashed "within 20 minutes", says the city council.
The Herald reported yesterday how six people were treated by paramedics after the incident in Outland Road.
The accident followed a series of traffic light failures near the Britannia Inn pub.
Police said the smash, which caused "chaos" along the busy route, happened more than two hours after the faulty lights were first reported to Plymouth City Council's Highways department.
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But a council spokesman said workmen were at the scene within minutes of the fault being reported.
"At 10.30am on Tuesday morning a telephone company work crew accidentally cut through a power cable, causing a power cut in the area including the traffic lights at Outland Road," the spokesman said.
"Within 20 minutes Plymouth Transport and Highways had an engineer on site and shortly after had advance warnings up on the approach roads and local media traffic and travel news desks were informed so drivers could be warned.
"Western Power Distribution were on site within the hour to repair the damaged cable and it was anticipated it would be fixed very quickly.
"Where there is a power failure such as this, the national agreed practice is not to put 'out of order' signs on the ground.
"This is because the signs could still be in place when the power is restored which could result in drivers go through a red light thinking they're not working properly.
"In situations such as this the Highway Code tells drivers to treat the area like an unmarked junction and proceed with great care. The traffic lights were working again by lunchtime."
A spokesman for Devon and Cornwall Police said on Tuesday that police had assisted in clearing the scene.
The spokesman told The Herald: "Even by the time officers left no one had come along to look at the lights."
Comments
by PlymTransit
Thursday, September 13 2012, 12:41PM
“A spokesman for Devon and Cornwall Police said on Tuesday that police had assisted in clearing the scene. The spokesman told The Herald: "Even by the time officers left no one had come along to look at the lights."
The council already knew there was a power cut in the area which caused the problem. They also knew that when the power was restored the lights would work again. There was no need to actually look at the lights themselves.
Seems it was the police who were out of the loop on this one. Did know one tell them it was a power cut?”