Official turns off traffic lights after police spat

An official who decided to switch off the power supply to traffic lights in Liuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, causing traffic chaos in the city, has been suspended from his post and will face further punishment.

The temporary switch-off was caused by a miscommunication between the official surnamed Huang, from the Liuzhou lighting management office, and Huang's colleague, a truck driver, a team leader of the Liuzhou traffic police Peng Keyu told the Global Times Sunday.

Around 11 am Friday, a traffic police officer surnamed Wang stopped a truck from the lighting office, which is in charge of the power supply to the city's traffic lights, for a traffic violation.

The driver did not have his work order with him, and his driving license was confiscated, so he then called his colleague Huang for help.

"Maybe that's why the driver called Huang, to ask for its (permit) whereabouts," said Peng.

When Huang turned up on the scene to help the driver, he told officer Wang "if you don't give him back the license, I'll cut off the power to the lights," according to Peng.

Wang agreed, and the driver accompanied him to a police station to retrieve the license. However, around 12.15 pm, the traffic lights at the city's Chengzhan Lu intersection, near where the truck was stopped, suddenly went out. The blackout during the noon traffic peak caused chaos and drivers were extremely angry, the Liuzhou Evening News reported.

"The lighting management office and police have always maintained a close partnership. Somehow Huang thought we were giving his colleague trouble and flared up on that day," Peng said. "The incident was caused by improper communication between Huang and his colleague over if he was going to get his license back."

Police called the lighting office several times, but they at first did not believe what Huang had done, said Peng. The power outage lasted for half an hour but traffic was not blocked for long, as there were officers on the scene to help out.

Huang "apologized" later in the afternoon for not "informing earlier that we were going to examine the grid," according to the publicity department of Liuzhou traffic police Friday.

But the city's commission for discipline inspection investigated the incident Saturday and affirmed that Huang, as a maintenance team leader of the city lighting management office, has violated his working discipline and ordered the office to punish him, according to a statement from the commission.