Road death warning signs deemed a hazard to drivers

Road signs highlighting casualties on the A1 in Northumberland are to be taken down because they are now considered to be a hazard to motorists.

About 20 signs were placed on a long stretch of the single carriageway road in the early 1990s to bring home to drivers the number of road deaths.

But the Highways Agency says drivers are suffering from information overload and the signs have become a hazard.



All of them are due to be removed in the current financial year.

A spokesman for the agency said: "The signs were put up as an experiment in the early 1990s. But research has shown that they have not had a noticeable effect on accident figures."

He said recent studies had shown drivers are increasingly suffering from "information overload" and that there was now concern the signs could be more of a distraction than an aid.