28 October 2013

Belco safety sign rampage?

| Barcham
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Smack

LSWCHP has noticed something a that seems a little disturbing happening in the North, anyone else spotted this?

Driving through Dunlop today on Kerrigan circuit I noticed that many of the safety signs on the road had been smashed to the ground, as shown in the attached image. There must’ve been over a dozen signs damaged in a similar way in the space of a kilometer or so.

I’ve noticed this happening all over Belco lately. And in Kaleen, the safety barriers on a pedestrian island near Kaleen Plaza have likewise been smashed over.

It seems to be a recent thing, as though some bunch of lackwitted hoods have decided to suddenly start a rampage of stupidity against signage.
These things are made out of fairly stout looking metal, so it’s no small effort on the part of the morons involved to do this. I’m not even sure how it would be done. It looks like a large vehicle like a truck has actually been driven over the top of this particular sign.

Has anybody noticed this elsewhere in Canberra, or is it isolated to Belconnen?

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Grimm said :

I travel down Kerrigan street once or twice a week. I think you will find in this case, they aren’t being damaged on purpose. I have seen them hit by garbage trucks, buses, and other large vehicles on many occasions. These things are put in these ridiculous slowing obstacles, and many large vehicles simply can’t get through without hanging over the stupid island put there for no good reason. These signs are dangerous, and probably shouldn’t be replaced.

The reason the islands were put on Kerrigan Street is primarily to stop people overtaking buses. You may notice they are all near bus stops. No point looking on google earth though as the images are well before they were put in.

Now if said vehicles slowed down and stopped for buses they wouldn’t hit them. I mean to say 99.99% get through ok, so clearly drive properly and ever vehicle should get through without hitting them.

Roksteddy said :

Solidarity said :

Bogans with a 4WD equipped with a bull bar…

No, they are mostly done by long trucks that can’t make the turn. A common one is at the corner of Bellenden St and Barton Highway – trucks often do a U-turn there and just drive over the top of these signs.

The ones in the picture are nowhere near a turn. They are on traffic calming islands in the middle of the road nowhere near intersections. As someone else mentioned I too have seen one on Kerrigan Street get hit, but some dickhead trying to over take a bus that was stopped at the bus stop. In their haste to overtake they didn’t see the traffic island (put there to stop overtaking) and clearly didn’t see the sign. End result what is seen in the picture.

gazket said :

if it’s on purpose the vehicle will hook up sooner or later .
people do hit them driving in a daze. I’ve seen 2 cars in perfect daylight hit that massive sharp roundabout warning sign on the Barton Hwy . The sign has 2 posts and is around 3m w x 6m h.

Great – why are we still handing out licences to such inattentive folk? What (or who) are they going to destroy next time they have a ‘lapse in concentration’?

if it’s on purpose the vehicle will hook up sooner or later .
people do hit them driving in a daze. I’ve seen 2 cars in perfect daylight hit that massive sharp roundabout warning sign on the Barton Hwy . The sign has 2 posts and is around 3m w x 6m h.

I have witnessed the signs on Kerrigan St being knocked over on many occasions. Usually it’s just a car that hits them because the driver’s not paying attention. I remember one day seeing a new sign being installed and with minutes it got knocked over again.

I’ve seen a few on the roads around the airport, and they are in popular illegal/dangerous turning zones. also noticed the cheese cutter side fence on the King’s, coming up to the Captains Flat roundabout, has also been smashed outwards.

This costs all of us, it all has to be replaced, and we pay for it.

Perhaps on intersections large vehicles have trouble negotiating, they should replace signs with those flexible rubber poles?

On straights where the damage has been caused by trouble makers, they should replace the signs with solid steel?

steveu said :

Well I for one think this sucks. I am no fan of the local council, however I have found TAMS have been very responsive and accommodating in al my dealings with them.

I think its piss poor they have to waste their time (and our money) getting signs fixed because someone thinks so little of society in general that they have no sense of consideration or remorse for acts such as this.

I travel down Kerrigan street once or twice a week. I think you will find in this case, they aren’t being damaged on purpose. I have seen them hit by garbage trucks, buses, and other large vehicles on many occasions. These things are put in these ridiculous slowing obstacles, and many large vehicles simply can’t get through without hanging over the stupid island put there for no good reason. These signs are dangerous, and probably shouldn’t be replaced.

Well I for one think this sucks. I am no fan of the local council, however I have found TAMS have been very responsive and accommodating in al my dealings with them. I think its piss poor they have to waste their time (and our money) getting signs fixed because someone thinks so little of society in general that they have no sense of consideration or remorse for acts such as this.

Roksteddy said :

Solidarity said :

Bogans with a 4WD equipped with a bull bar…

No, they are mostly done by long trucks that can’t make the turn. A common one is at the corner of Bellenden St and Barton Highway – trucks often do a U-turn there and just drive over the top of these signs.

At least some of the damaged signs I saw in Dunlop were on straight sections of road, like this one.

The damaged safety barriers on Maribyrnong that I mentioned are also on a straight, and the flattened speed sign that Paul0075 mentioned is on the outside edge of a roundabout and nowhere near where a truck might accidentally hit it.

If you drive down a long crescent and sign after sign has been smashed in the same manner, it
doesn’t seem unreasonable to conclude that it’s malicious.

I’ll see if I can take a few more pics and send them in to show how widespread this is.

Hilux hero for sure

Solidarity said :

Bogans with a 4WD equipped with a bull bar…

No, they are mostly done by long trucks that can’t make the turn. A common one is at the corner of Bellenden St and Barton Highway – trucks often do a U-turn there and just drive over the top of these signs.

plausibly_deniable12:44 pm 28 Oct 13

I want to love my fellow man and all, but really, do we have to put up with these mouthbreathers in our city? I’m sick of 99% of us having to shell out for ignorant tools like the wankers who did this. Can’t we export the little turds to, say, Clive Palmer’s electorate?

I noticed on my way to work today from Spence that there’s fresh burnout marks on Kuringa Dr and also on Barton Hwy between Kuringa Dr and Gold Creek turn off.

Not to mention TAMS still have fixed up the knocked over speed limit sign on Kingsford Smith Dr even though I reported it a month ago. It’s one of the new ones that went a while back. Plus someone has flattened the speed limit sign on Baldwin Dr near Maribyrnong Av.

I don’t understand why so many signs (not just in Belco) have been collected, obviously there’s too many people not driving with care or purposely going out of their way to knock down signs. The average regulatory or warning sign costs between $300 to $500 each, plus costs of posts and an installation crew to go out and replace them, so it’s quite expensive for the government / taxpayers.

Bogans with a 4WD equipped with a bull bar…

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