A barber has been hailed a 'hero' for preventing a 'serious accident' when traffic lights failed on a busy A-road - by flamboyantly conducting cars with a rainbow-coloured feather duster. Paul Taylor predicted traffic chaos when he noticed the signal failure on Chesterfield Road, Sheffield, on June 8.
But when the 46-year-old's girlfriend Tammy Corbidge drove up to the four-way junction he was stunned to spot a man standing in the middle with a brightly coloured feather duster. Footage shows local barber Mo Qadir waving the brush to signal cars to cross the A-road from Scarsdale Road while holding other traffic back by raising a finger on his left hand.
He then 'stylishly' lowers his brush to tell the flowing cars to stop before waving Tammy, 46, and vehicles on Chesterfield Road forward. Motorists appeared to obey 28-year-old Mo's signals perfectly and Paul even shouts 'top man' out of the window to show respect to the good Samaritan.
Mo has since said he noticed traffic building up so wanted to help and says he had fun controlling the traffic for around half an hour. Paul has hailed him a 'hero' for preventing an accident at the junction and said the incident 'made his night'.
He shared the video, which was hot around 6pm, on Twitter where it's been viewed more than 20,000 times with users complimenting his 'stylish' conducting work.
Paul, from Sheffield, Yorkshire, said: "We noticed the lights were out and thought 'oh for f**k's sake, what's happened here?' but then I saw the feather duster.
"It was brightly coloured so everyone could see it. The duster must have been from brushing the hair in his shop.
"He made it fun and we had a giggle. I've never seen anything like it so I thought I'd have to get a video.
"They can cause serious accidents when the lights are off. I was expecting us not to know when to go and when to stop.
"It was great. It reminded me of the tv series Police Academy where the officer has to do traffic duty. He did really well.
"What if someone had crashed while he was directing though? Rather him than me but I suppose he's a bit of a hero."
Dad-of-three Paul says that when he drove to work at his shoe reinvention shop the following morning traffic lights were working again. Mo says he hasn't seen any videos of him yet but he says everyone was grateful for his work.
Mo, from Kurdistan, said: "I had fun. I could see the traffic was very, very busy so I just want to help people.
"I haven't seen the video but I know some people recorded me. Everyone was saying well done."
Mo's works at Cousin's Barber, which is just two doors away from the junction he was controlling. Paul's video of his good deed, captioned 'lights out on Chesterfield Road? No problem' has been liked more than 200 times.
One commented: "And he's doing it in style." A second added: "Looks like one of the barbers from Cousin's! Doing a great job."
A third simply said: "Love that!" Sheffield Council has been contacted for comment.
