A total of 62 traffic lights positioned in various locations throughout Santa Cruz ceased operating on multiple occasions during the past month of August. These outages resulted in disrupted traffic in busy areas, particularly during peak hours, such as the avenues Francisco La Roche, 3 de Mayo, Bélgica, Los Majuelos, or Las Hespérides; La Rambla; as well as the streets Méndez Núñez, 25 de Julio, La Marina, El Pilar, and Villalba Hervás, among others, leaving many drivers stuck in traffic turmoil.
One month later, the city council informed the public of the reasons that led to these traffic incidents, which included unexpected power outages, demolitions for various reasons, flooded manholes, theft of service cables, vandalism by an individual in a service room, and even a lizard that was electrocuted.
The Councillor for Mobility and Accessibility, Evelyn Alonso, disclosed this information regarding the failures of the traffic lights to Alejandro Gómez, the councillor of the VOX municipal group, who raised concerns about the issues that caused these disruptions during the recent local control commission.
Alonso clarified that, based on the report provided by the Kapsch company concerning the operational issues with the traffic lights in the municipality throughout August, which accounted for 62 incidents; 25 were attributed to power outages from Unelco, Endesa, and Imes; 11 were due to demolitions; three were linked to scheduled maintenance of the signals; five resulted from theft and vandalism; while 18 were categorised as other failures.
As outlined in the municipal report, which DIARIO DE AVISOS has obtained, the sources of the surge in traffic light outages in the capital were identified via the management and monitoring system PDS or through citizen notifications to the Local Police, which led to the examination and necessary repairs of the traffic signals, a significant number of which were non-operational due to power failures or the tripping of circuit breakers as a result of elevated temperatures.
Additional factors included issues with the CPU shutting down; defective output cards; blocked controls; or notably, the failure of the electric crossing at Camino del Hierro due to an electrocuted lizard.
Vandalism incidents, including decapitated traffic lights, demolitions from traffic accidents, and acts of sabotage were additional contributing factors. A notable incident occurred on August 19 at 10:45 p.m., where it was reported that a man had broken into the service room on Avenida República de Honduras and Avenida de Anaga and manipulated the lever, rendering that section devoid of traffic regulation.
