Complaints over posters blocking signs

The Road Safety Authority (RSA) has issued a warning about pedestrian safety and traffic signs being obscured by election posters.

The RSA warning follows the unseemly haste with which election workers from every party strapped multiple posters to lamp posts in the hours following the Taoiseach's dawn visit to Áras an Uachtaráin to dissolve the Dáil.

Lithuanian workers put up election posters in Dublin on Saturday. Image: Bryan O'Brien.

RSA chief executive Noel Brett said the competitive jockeying for prime position adjacent to major roads and junctions is creating problems for motorists and pedestrians and is leading to complaints.

Mr Brett said his office had received three formal complaints by yesterday afternoon and numerous queries and expressions of concern.

"The signage on our roads, whether put there by the National Roads Authority, local authorities or the gardaí or construction and road repair teams, are there to help motorists stay safe," Mr Brett said.

"So it is vital that no action is taken that either obscures them or distracts road users from their content.

"The election posters are quite wide and quite large. People are contacting us concerned about the visibility of traffic signs and also the safety of pedestrians if these posters fall," he said.

Mr Brett said all the complaints have been referred on to the relevant local authority for investigation.

Under the Road Traffic Act of 1961 it is an offence to place any sign or notice that blocks a traffic sign. Responsibility for enforcing this legislation rests with the local authorities through which the road travels.

Among the signs that cannot be blocked are those relating to speed limits, junction warnings, road works, and directions.