Gardaí investigate vandalism of Kilkenny Road traffic lights
Photo of the damaged traffic light.
Gardaí are investigating a serious act of vandalism to traffic lights on the Kilkenny Road in Carlow, which the local authority says could have resulted in the loss of life on a busy school and college route.
Carlow County Council found that an individual had forcibly gained access to the signal controller cabinet at the junction and intentionally interfered with its operation. The damage came to light following reports of a traffic light outage.
Multiple switches and power supplies had been manually switched off, and detection systems had been interfered with in a random manner, meaning the junction failed to operate safely.
The pedestrian push button was also vandalised, causing it to jam in the active position and create constant pedestrian calls.
Carlow County Council chief executive Coilín O’Reilly confirmed that the vandalism has been reported to gardaí and that a thorough investigation is being carried out.
“This is an important junction, on both SETU and school driving, cycling and walking routes,” he said.
“The deliberate switching off of equipment within the controller cabinet would appear to indicate a targeted attempt to disrupt the operation of the junction.
“Public safety is our top priority – and this act of criminal vandalism potentially put road users of all ages and transport modes in danger.”
