larnings must be uick and lucid
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ITHIN 20 seconds of an .:ident occurring on a 60-mile 'etch of Dutch motorway, mputers switch on warning jns. In Britain, says the RAC, a delay can be anything up to If an hour.
What is more, British drivers a not told why advisory speed strictions have been imposed, why red lights are flashing. So ey take little or no notice, lich should surprise no one. Weather checks on Dutch otorways record rainfall, iibility and temperatures at
three levels. Early warning of frost enables 1,000 miles of road to be salted in 45 minutes.
The RAC has impressed on Lynda Chalker, Transport UnderSecretary, the necessity for warnings to be rapid and explanatory, and to be cancelled immediately the need for them ceases, if they are to be credible. Then even the born-again idiots who hurtle down British motorways in fog, flood or snow might respond to them.
Meanwhile, three signs on ordinary roads have intrigued a reader of The Times by the ambiguity caused by lack of punctuation. One said: "Lambs drive slowly." Another read: "Sheep dogs will be shot." The correspondent was uncertain whether he was supposed to stop when he saw: "Give way markings erased."
The road sign that is universally ignored, although its message is unequivocal, is "Stop children."