The lights looked pretty, but police say a trifecta of traffic problems snarled Crandon Boulevard starting around 3:30 pm Tuesday, including a mixture of lighting crews, a broken pickup, and a disabled County Bus.
“We got hit with a double whammy,” said Deputy Chief Jason Younes. He said first, a pickup truck broke down with a broken axle around 3:30 p.m. A tow truck was ordered, but it wasn’t powerful enough to lift the disabled vehicle.
Combined with the lighting crews working outside of the Key Colony condominium complex, traffic began to build. Younes said police directed the work crew to resume work later, and traffic started to ease before 6 p.m.
That’s when word of the disabled bus came in.
Social media channels lit up with questions and complaints. Others urged residents to stay in the holiday spirit, adding a hashtag #scrooge.
Younes said the lighting crew did not finish its work and will resume putting up the decorations from the southbound lane at a later time.
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Tony Winton is the editor-in-chief of the Key Biscayne Independent and president of Miami Fourth Estate, Inc. He worked previously at The Associated Press for three decades winning multiple Edward R. Murrow awards. He was president of the News Media Guild, a journalism union, for 10 years. Born in Chicago, he is a graduate of Columbia University. His interests are photography and technology, sailing, cooking, and science fiction.