From Steve Lyons
Further to Anthony Wheeler’s letter on distracting road “safety” signs (7 September, p 30), am I alone in being alarmed by the trend for big yellow signs on dangerous stretches of road stating “13 accidents in 4 years” or something similar?
As well as distracting the eyes, they invite the driver’s mind to take a statistical diversion from the road ahead. The above example suggests to me one accident every 112.4 days, or a 0.0089 probability of an accident occurring today.
Not bad odds, particularly considering I’m unlikely to be the most dangerous driver passing this way.
On the other hand, if I then factor in the chances of overlooking the oncoming juggernaut while I’m doing the above calculation, I come to a somewhat different result.
Meeth, Devon, UK
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