Excerpt
The roadside Don’t Drink and Drive Memorial Sign Program… has been expanded to include other types of traffic fatalities, said Nancy McClenny-Walters with the Walla Walla County Department of Community Health and coordinator of the… County Traffic Safety Task Force.
The Task Force [has] expanded its program to include new signs that read “Please Drive Safely,” “Please Don’t Speed,” “Please Watch for Motorcycles,” “Please Watch for Bicyclists,” “Please Watch for Pedestrians” and “Seat Belts Save Lives.”
“The memorial sign program began in 1994 as a public awareness campaign to educate and make people aware of how many people were being killed in drunken driving collisions in our state. The first signs in the state were placed along Highway 12…
Read the full article, from the Union Bulletin
Commentary
It is an essential part of highway safety that the driving public are continually reminded of need for awareness and alertness on roads.
In my own opinion — for this is a subject on which I have no specific research — these signs in Washington are a good idea.
As with all signs, they clearly do need to be located away from any likely trajectories of vehicles that are out of control, therefore, for example, not near or beyond the outer apex of any curve. In addition, it is important nowadays for all road signs to be on breakaway mountings so that if they are struck by a vehicle the pole snaps off at its base, thus minimizing damage to the vehicle or injury to its occupants.
Washington State, however, has a very good reputation in road safety so I’m confident they’ll have had such details sorted out for many years. 🙂
Eddie Wren, CEO & Chief Instructor — Advanced Drivers of North America
