Durban - The eThekwini municipality has defended three metro police officers who stood watch over a car in Pinetown while pandemonium ensued at a major intersection nearby, where all the robots were out of action.
Tensions ran high on Monday as traffic built up and motorists struggled to get through the busy intersection of the M19 and M13 over the St Johns bridge, with no pointsmen to help.
Traffic could be seen building up at the on-ramp to St Johns bridge from Pinetown. While this was happening, three metro policewomen had parked their Toyota Quantum minibus in front of a car at the intersection of St Johns Avenue and Bamboo Lane.
It is not clear if they were aware the traffic signals were out, or if they directed traffic at the intersection afterwards.
eThekwini Head of Communications, Tozi Mthethwa, said the officers were unaware the traffic lights were down.
“The officers could not have known about the defective robots at the intersections in question, as the route they utilised when attending to the accident scene had operational robots and traffic was flowing. They had also not received any reports of faulty traffic lights at the intersections,” she said.
Motorists are urged to treat any intersection with defective traffic signals as a four-way stop. Defective robots can be reported to the metro police control room at 031 361 0000.
Daily News
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