Perhaps the most interesting part of this report is the statement that this problem is appearing elsewhere in the country.

School zone malfunction remedied by city staff

Story by Chuck Smith

Photo by Mark Bowers

No one knows whether it was a late Y2K glitch or just a coincidence, but many motorists found their neighborhood school crossing signals malfunctioning this week.

Great Bend Police Department Capt. Bob Robinson said in some cases the lights did not function at all. Others blinked when they were not supposed to and in some places, one side of the sign would work while the other would not.

The signs are computer controlled and problems developed Tuesday morning.

Those problems became more widespread Wednesday, so city staff began asking the manufacturers for answers.

City staff found out the problem, which was affected by a faulty microchip, was not confined to Great Bend, but was cropping up elsewhere around the country.

By late Wednesday, however, the problem was on the road to getting solved and Robinson said it would not be an on-going issue.

For future reference, Robinson said in the event flashing lights at school zones are not working, and school is in session, the enforced speed limit is still 20 mph.

Link to story:

http://ajr.newslink.org/cgi/goto.cgi?2=001578

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), February 03, 2000

Answers

"The signs are computer controlled and problems developed Tuesday morning."

*Another* February 1st glitch??? Strange. Why would something like this operate properly on January 1st, but screw-up with the month change?

-- Steve Baxter (chicoqh@home.com), February 03, 2000.

"Why would something like this operate properly on January 1st, but screw-up with the month change?"

Must be January 32...I'm not joking. I seem to recall some post a while back about a test in which a computer system worked until it reached something like January 54th, when it finally failed. Sorry I don't recall the details but someone else here will surely remember and give a link.

Can some computer whiz explain a potential mechanism of buffer overflow and such in the case described above?

--Andre in southcentral Pennsylvania, written 34 Jan 2000

-- Andre Weltman (72320.1066@compuserve.com), February 03, 2000.

"Traffic Lights Malfunction in Kansas; May Trigger Supervolcanoes"

-- . (playing@atheaternear.you), February 03, 2000.