When a safety sign isn’t safe

This is a particular favourite of mine. How often have you seen a safety sign placed to warn you/people of a hazard that is actually a hazard in its self?

Skid Risk

I recently saw a sign warning traffic of a “Skid Risk” which you might say is a good idea and in principle I agree. However the person who placed the sign clearly had not thought about the danger it was creating.

The reason for the sign was to warn drivers that because tractors were turning on to the road from a field and depositing mud on to the road surface there was a risk of them losing control of their vehicles and by inference that they should slow down and drive according to the road conditions.

Good/not so good?

Now that is a good thing in part because it does warn drivers of the risk but it does attempt to transfer the responsibility of the hazard to the driver rather than take ownership of it and removing it by clearing it away, which in turn would remove the hazard and therefore the risk.

For many people living in or near the countryside and driving around country lanes it is not uncommon to see mud from fields transferred on to roads near farm and field entrances. This was the reason that these signs were put up, to warn drivers that the “Skid Risk” was caused by mud on the road surface.

Hazardous signs

The problem in this instance was that because of how the signs themselves had been placed, they were actually a greater risk than the slippery road surface. They were on a bend in the road, which when approached from one direction were not visible until the driver had committed themselves to steering round the corner. Then suddenly, there at the side of the road, right where the side of their vehicle would be, they notice this metal sign and of course they swerved to avoid it, right into the path of the oncoming traffic, the driver of which in turn had to swerve to avoid a collision, often having to leave the road to do so.

I have seen a great many other examples of warning signs being placed to warn people, generally the public of danger, with absolutely no consideration of the danger that they could be creating. For example wet floor warning signs being placed outside a closed toilet door. It is absolutely right that a sign should be placed but, on a carpet, outside a solid door – no. All that it needs is for someone to come out of the toilet – where incidentally the floor was wet and therefore slippery and with no warning sign – and trip over the sign and all that good intent would have been wasted.

The same goes for the road signs. What happened to the signs for the “Skid Risk”? Well they were very quickly hit by vehicles and left flat at the side of the road where they did no good at all.

In another example on a straight road a warning sign was placed into a hedge, partially obscuring the information and sticking out into the road causing an unnecessary obstruction. Again the sign didn’t last long before it was knocked over.

Department of Transport Guidelines

In all cases a little bit of fore thought would have actually warned people of the danger and been safer. The Department of Transport is very prescriptive about how warning signs should be placed (which is quite worrying in its self and possibly indicative of why people do not think for themselves – because they are worried that they are breaking a non-existent law), although they do contradict themselves. For example “Precautionary measures – If at all possible place signs so that they do not obstruct vehicles, cyclists, pedestrians or other road users. Where there is no street lighting, place a Road Danger Lamp alongside signs which are on, or partly on a footway to warn pedestrians at night.”

And then on the next page “Set out the Road Works Ahead sign at the distance which you have already decided. Measure or pace out the distance. Then put one sign on the left-hand side, and another on the other side of the road if required” . This is where it goes wrong because most of the contractors only follow the instruction to put a sign on the left-hand side of the road. But what happens if the sign is on the inside of a bend? People/drivers don’t naturally look at the inside of a bend at ground level, their line of sight is on the middle of the road, so it is a shock when a metre high sign suddenly appears in their peripheral vision and of course they swerve to avoid this unexpected obstacle.

Forward planning

Now what would happen if because someone had thought about that before placing the signs?

Instead of having to place them so that they created an obstruction, with only a little planning they could be placed on the other side of the road, actually in the sight line of the drivers and well away from the edge of the road. Then the purpose of warning drivers of the danger would have been fulfilled and the signs would have stayed where they were put.

The signs outside the toilets?

Only needed to be put where they could be seen by people coming out of the toilet, to have done their task of warning people going in and not been a hazard themselves.