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Vancouver city - Police Investigating Possible Sabotage of Traffic Light Computer System

The Police department of Vancouver city is investigating if someone had sabotaged the computer system controlling the city's traffic lights, as there was traffic congestions at many important intersections in the city on September 27, 2007.

An individual who claims himself a CUPE (Canadian Union of Public Employees) member took the responsibility for the problem. The city maintained that the computer that command the town's traffic lights was set behind by seven-hours. The result was that the green light durations became shorter and there were no display of advance left hand turns. This implied that traffic signals geared for midnight time were managing traffic for the morning rush hour.

Left-turn indications, which flash on a different night schedule, had become inoperative during most part of the day. B-Line buses that run on the Granville Street were unable to prolong the durations. Green lights turned on for less than normal duration.

It was possible that the out-of-sync traffic lights were resulted due to computer problem. This often happens during a strike when the systems are reset less frequently, said Chief City Engineer, Tom Timm. Canada published this in news on September 28, 2007.

In the late afternoon, the city repaired the problem in the causeway lane and then took care of the remaining system that was restored to normal conditions by around 5 pm.

Suspicion of the problem with the traffic lights was associated with the civic strike arose when a man, who did not identify himself, called up all-traffic radio station AM730 and engaged in conversation with Michael McDermott, the traffic anchor.

The man who was mentioning the problem said he was calling from traffic CUPE local to say that the problem would continue. On asking further, he said the problem would remain as long as the strike would last. The people on strike since 70 days included Vancouver's librarians and workers, and members of 3 locals of CUPE.

However, Paul Faoro, CUPE Local 15, refuted that any member on strike was responsible for the hack in the system. He deputed an engineer specializing in traffic lights, also a strike member, to rectify the problem. Canada published this in news on 28n September 2007.

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