Long legs of the law fail to slow traffic

A bid to slow down traffic by installing life-sized cardboard cut-outs of mini-skirted policewomen has backfired. The curvy mini-skirted WPCs were supposed to slow down traffic doubled accident rates when male drivers couldn't take their eyes off them.

The models - showing a leggy lady cop with a stop sign - were installed at busy junctions throughout the Czech Republic to save cash on installing new traffic lights. But local police say the accident rates have soared as men take their eyes off the road to gawp at the models' legs.



Motorist Petr Lederer - who complained to the country's Interior Ministry after driving his car off the road - said: "The cut outs are distracting. I mean, mini-skirts? In this weather?"

But a police service spokesman explained: "The cardboard WPCs are a way of saving money during the austerity cuts."