Traffic lights can be the bane of our existence, but importantly, they moderate the flow of traffic and make the roads safer for us road users. We think of traffic lights as sturdy metal posts in the ground which are pretty much indestructible. To the contrary, traffic lights can be damaged by the smallest of creatures.
It was reported by Salford Online that slugs (of all creatures) managed to enter inside a roadside signal control box and cause the traffic lights to short-circuit. As a result of this, an accident occurred on the A580 East Lancs Road meets the A575 Walkden Road. Thankfully no-one was hurt, but a car destroyed a traffic light pole and caused hours of delays.
As strange as it may sound, slugs damaging traffic light circuits are not an uncommon phenomenon. In 2011, a teenage girl was killed in a car crash after a slug caused a set of traffic lights to fail in Staffordshire.
Transport for Greater Manchester spokesperson said: “TFGM staff have checked the control box at the junction to ensure that it is properly sealed and sanded to prevent slugs, as much as is possible, from entering the unit.
“We’ve also stressed to our contractor the importance of ensuring that all signal control boxes are properly maintained and that they continue to treat any faults as an urgent priority.
Clearly, transport operators must take this issue seriously and ensure that electrical circuits are properly sealed off. Let’s hope we don’t hear another case similar to this happen for a very long time.
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Traffic bosses are slug-proofing traffic lights in Walkden after admitting the slimy gastropods caused traffic lights at a busy junction to break four times in two weeks.
After the lights repeatedly went down there was an inevitable accident where the A580 East Lancs Road meets the A575 Walkden Road at 6am on Wednesday 14 September.
Luckily no-one was hurt, but the smash destroyed a traffic light pole and caused hours of delays.
Councillor Iain Lindley, who represents Walkden, predicted there would be an accident after the signals stopped working for the third morning rush hour in a row.
Source: http://salfordonline.com/32385-tfgm-sorry-slugs-breaking-traffic-lights-walkden-a580-crash.html
