No electric light or power wire shall be erected or maintained within fifty yards of any public road or highway in this State, unless it be so constructed, erected and maintained and provided with sufficient lightning guards or arresters, automatic cut-offs and other devices as may be necessary for the protection of persons and property. Any person erecting or maintaining any such wire in violation of the provisions hereof shall forfeit and pay as a penalty therefor five dollars a day for each day such violation continues after the expiration of thirty days from the date on which he may have been given a written notice specifying the fault or defect in the manner of erection, construction or maintenance thereof. Such penalty may be recovered at the suit of any citizen in any county in which such violation shall occur and the sum so recovered, after paying therefrom all the expenses incurred in the prosecution of such suit, shall be paid into the county treasury for such county for ordinary county purposes.