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Reducing Road Accidents in the Form of Bigger, Brighter Signs

Reducing road accidents has become a top priority for the FHA recently. The Federal Highway Administration has ordered all local authorities to change street signs to make them more visible to motorists and prevent accidents. One of the requirements is that signs must now no longer come with all-capital letters. For instance, SANTA ANA BLVD. would become Santa Anna Blvd. According to some studies, elderly drivers can read signs better when they are in uppercase and lowercase combinations.

Additionally the ordinance will also require a change in the size of the safety signs. By 2012, all signs must be increased from the current 4 inches to 6 inches. The Federal Highway Administration has also required that by 2018, street signs must come with new reflective letters that are even more visible at night.

Obviously, these changes would be paid for by local municipalities. That’s the reason why the Federal Highway Administration’s new order has been met with a barrage of criticism. Much of the criticism has to do with the fact that many local municipalities in California and around the country are struggling with budget cuts, fiscal issues, and finding the funds to pay for these new signs will be hard. However, it’s clear that the feds have thought this through properly. Transportation Sec. Ray LaHood has said that he will allow for comments from the public on these new rules. The FHA is constantly looking for new ways of <strong> reducing road accidents</strong> to prevent traffic accident deaths.

The National Transportation Safety Board recently did recommend that federal transportation agencies begin taking elderly drivers into mind while designing highway safety enhancements. There are more numbers of elderly motorists on our roads now, and these numbers will simply increase over the next couple of decades. Elderly drivers will likely account for more than a quarter of our population by the next decade. That’s a large number of drivers aged 65 and above who may suffer from common problems like failing vision. Making traffic signs easier to read for a growing population of older, and possibly impaired motorists, makes good traffic sense.

Besides, the fact is that most deadly traffic accidents occur at night. According to the Federal Highway Administration, just about 25% of all travel takes place at night, but 50% of all traffic accident fatalities take place during this period of time. No matter how experienced a driver you are, your chances of an accident simply increase during the night. In the daytime, you have visual cues to help you drive safely. At nighttime, your access to visual cues like signboards decreases, unless they have been made with retro reflective materials. Retroreflective signs make it easier for motorists to drive at night.

Besides, retroreflective signs are also especially beneficial to older drivers, who find it hard to read traffic signs clearly in the nighttime. Obviously, paying for these new highway safety enhancements is not going to be easy, especially with the fiscal deficit in California. But, California car accident attorneys hope that motorist safety will end up taking precedence over budgetary concerns.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of auto accidents. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

The Reeves Law Group is not representing any party in the matters discussed in this posting.

The Reeves Law Group
200 West Santa Ana Boulevard
Suite 630
Santa Ana, CA 92701
(714) 550-6000

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