Attention Drunks

You know what I love about small town government?  Problems get solved.  Case in point, Peter Antal, the Mayor of Pecica, a small Romanian border town had a serious problem.  His town apparently has a lot of drunken pedestrians who get hit by cars.  “In recent years… some traffic accidents (have) resulted, in some cases, even with deceased (people).”

Antal said it was not motorists’ fault but blamed the town’s pedestrians, many of whom were not able to look out for themselves as they stumble around the town, which is more than 300 miles west of the Romanian capital Bucharest.

“We are a border town and have lots of cars thundering through here all the time, but we also have a very vibrant nightlife and the two don’t mix.” he told local media.

“We have to target the drivers because by the time they get to this state, the pedestrians are beyond caring. We have thought about different options (on how) we can stop this and we decided that first step was to mount these signs.” The signs were erected in popular nightspots close to the town’s bars and restaurants.

Antal explained that, “We must warn drivers that sometimes people who have little control over their actions can suddenly appear in the road.” He denied the signs would send out the wrong message to the town’s residents, claiming the signs were a “positive contribution”.

The helpful signs were up for about a week before the local town council decided to remove the 10 red road signs, which showed a person crawling on their knees while clutching a glass in one hand, because they had produced “excessive” media coverage.

The council released a statement, “We had consultations with representatives of Arad County Traffic Police and we decided together that this indicator be changed to those with the meaning ‘other dangers’, which are… in the road.“