Mayor Wagner: Public Responsible for Broken Traffic Lights  

Residents of Belize City have noticed that some traffic lights, especially those on Vernon Street, are frequently out of order. Mayor Bernard Wagner explained that the lights were in perfect condition, but reckless driving has caused the damage. He shared more about the council’s plans to fix the current lights and install more across the city. Here’s what he had to say.

 

Bernard Wagner, Mayor, Belize City

“ Vernon Street. If only our residents begin to drive with care, we would have less of these problems. Every time we fix that light, somebody drive and broke down the posts. So, that has to stop. And the residents have to be held accountable at some point in time to, to be held accountable to pay for the damage, the cost of public property because it creates an inconvenience for the residents and see you are not coming to us. If that individual didn’t crash into that traffic light, we wouldn’t have had that problem. But again, accident happened. And so we are, that specific light is run by the MIDH. Right. But we have met with them to really, we have gotten a quotation to really get that fixed up. And so, I believe very shortly that will be resolved.”

 

Reporter

“And about the new lights?”

 

Bernard Wagner

“The new lights are all working very good. The one on King Street, we are waiting to have the area painted properly and, and marked so that we don’t have any issues there at King and Regent.”

 

Reporter

“Are there plans for more?”

 

Bernard Wagner

“Of course there are plans for more. We are looking at hat area by Vernon Street in the afternoon time. I think  we have to work smarter rather than harder and having a enforcement person standing on Vernon and the canal side every day is not smart. And so we do plan to put a light there to really manage that area. We look at Western Avenue and its intersection with the George Price Highway. That’s another area that we are looking at. And so we never stop, We are very strong and a smart city and having manual labor.  We have passed that now. We have to be smarter.”