Overgrown trees, bushes, hedges, and long grass at junctions hide road signs and obscure drivers' vision causing them to misread roads, lose control and place themselves and other road users in peril, says The AA Motoring Trust.
This annual problem sometimes results from poor siting of road signs, occasionally in the bushes themselves, and from a failure of local highway authorities to follow up on routine road inspections.
Landowners also sometimes fail to meet their hedge-cutting responsibilities, making local authorities waste time forcing them to carry out the work.
Speed limit signs can also be hidden and so speed camera partnerships should be required to check their visibility before operating speed checks. Other regulatory road signs are also often obscured – rendering the law potentially unenforceable.
"Local communities campaign for improved road safety through better signage and regulation only for the improvement to be lost through poor maintenance," says Paul Watters, head of roads and transport policy for The AA Motoring Trust. "What's the point of a tight bend sign on a country road or a 30 mph restriction sign when drivers without local knowledge don't see them?"
"Clear road signage is not only a legal requirement but essential for safety, route guidance and the effective enforcement of road traffic law. It is a nonsense for enforcement to take place when the legally-required signs are invisible to drivers."
Watters adds: "Unfortunately, some local authorities don't give overgrown foliage a high enough priority and just regard it as a nuisance for drivers to put up with."
The AA Motoring Trust is inviting motorists to email pictures of obscured road signs to the Trust at trust@theaa.com. The top three will be displayed on The AA Motoring Trust website. Entries should include details of location, road number or name, and a general description of the type of road and potential dangers. Contributors should take care, when taking pictures on the road, not to break the law or put themselves and other road-users at risk.
