This afternoon (Friday) saw two bakkies involved in a collision at the Heidelberg Road (R23) and Airport Drive intersection near Mall@Carnival, just hours before the traffic lights at this busy crossing are due to be back up and running.

While no injuries occurred, the crash saw one of the bakkies tipped on its side. This vehicle had just been repaired following a previous accident at the same intersection.

Repairs to the robots have been underway all day and contractors promised Mall@Carnival centre manager Erna Vermaak that the robots would be online and working by the end of the day.

Two new poles had to be erected, wired and the heads mounted before the new control box, which will now be housed on the mall premises for extra safety and uninterrupted power supply, could be connected.

Freedom Front Plus PR Clr Riaan van Zyl ran to assist the drivers and passengers of the two vehicles involved, as he was on site to celebrate the completion of the repairs.

Within a minute, a tow truck was on site to block off the scene, and within 10 minutes there were three.

Contractors were still hard at work by 15:10 while a Brakpan Herald journalist was on site.

The delay of the arrival of the control box set the progress back and the lights are scheduled to be operational by the latest 19:00 this evening.

Also read: Mall@Carnival adopts and protects traffic lights