Francistown — Francistown City Council (FCC) has spent over P500,000 to maintain controllers (traffic lights) related damages since the beginning of this year.

Deputy City Clerk (Technical Services), Mr Lawrence Mokotedi, said in an interview that these costs include replacement of two controllers, at least 20 standard poles and more than 40 signals.

Mr Mokotedi explained that the frequent hitting and damaging of traffic lights derail council's major maintenance plans of developing the city.

"The more traffic lights are damaged the more money is required to bring them back to operation.

"This recklessness also ends up rendering the traffic lights obsolete and endangering the safety of other motorists," he said.

Mr Mokotedi said the cost of replacement or maintenance of traffic lights depends on what has been damaged. He said a controller costs approximately P90,000 to replace, while a pole costs approximately P5,000 and a signal head costs P40,000.

"If a motorist, for instance, hits a controller, the costs are going to be significantly higher than when only a pole has been hit," he explained.

Mr Mokotedi stated that traffic lights are hit mostly during public holidays, weekends and month ends, and this happens at night and early in the morning between midnight and 6 am.

"We believe the reason why these accidents happen during this period is due to too much excitement by motorists," said Mokotedi.

He also said that traffic lights are hit by motorists at least once a month, and that there are those traffic lights which are prone to being hit more frequently than others. Mokotedi added that the major causes of damage to traffic lights is drunk driving or those that try to pass through red traffic lights.

BOPA