FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - Broken traffic signals across South Florida have driven people mad and have caused traffic nightmares in some areas.
As South Florida residents try to get back into their daily routines, crews have been working hard to get the traffic lights up and running.
Hundreds of lights are still out and some drivers have become frustrated or have forgotten to treat non-working traffic lights as a four-way stop.
Richard McLean, who lives in Pompano Beach, said he’s been dealing with traffic issues after the hurricane.
“Coming east on Atlantic Boulevard was massive traffic, unusually,” he said. “It’s not the normal traffic coming in in the morning.”
The light along Third Avenue and Sixth Street in Downtown Fort Lauderdale is out, as well as the light near the Broward County courthouse. However, in Miami, the nonfunctional light at an intersection led to an crash along Northwest 50th Street and 12th Avenue.
Two elderly women and a driver were transported to the hospital.
“Be very patient. We understand that there’s a lot of traffic, the students went back to school today, so that in and of itself causes more traffic out on the roads,” said Miami-Dade Police Detective Jennifer Capote. “Please, just be patient.”
At Miami-Dade Traffic Management Center, workers have been monitoring traffic flow and are trying to recover after Irma.
“At this point, we only have about 300 of our 2,700 signals that are not working and mostly because of lack of power,” said Director of Miami-Dade Transportation, Alice Bravo.
Crews have been working around the clock to clear the debris so that they can restore the power.
“I think, in the next day or two, as FPL finishes restoring power, we’ll have all of our signals working,” Bravo said. “There’s some that were very damaged, and we’ve had crews basically working 16 hours a day to rebuild those intersections.”
As drivers go about the day, remember to be safe on the roads, especially at night. Toll roads will remain toll-free until further notice.
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