Malfunctioning Vernon Street Stoplight Causes Concern for Commuters

The malfunctioning stoplight at the busy intersection of Vernon Street has been a growing concern for commuters and residents alike, but the Mayor of Belize City has shifted the blame for the ongoing issue onto the community itself. The mayor emphasized that the stoplight’s weeks-long outage is a result of resident negligence and vandalism that was caused by a traffic incident, urging citizens to take greater responsibility for protecting public property.

Bernard Wagner, Mayor of Belize City: “With 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 goes and breaks down the post. So that has to stop. And the residents have to be held accountable at some point in time to be held accountable to pay for the damage caused to public property. Because it creates an inconvenience for the residents and see you all are coming to us. If that individual didn’t crash into that traffic light we wouldn’t have had that problem. But again accidents happen and so we are….that specific light is run by the MIDH 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 resolve.”

Since then, the intersection has been left without functioning signals, leading to traffic congestion and safety concerns.