Track Signage for Lawyers?

[johnw]

On Saturday I tried out a new coastal walking track that has only been open for 6 months or so. Definitely not a wilderness bushwalking experience but it was very enjoyable with some spectacular coastal views, and generally a credit to those who planned and constructed it. But an enormous warning sign near the start (shown below) had me gobsmacked. Talk about covering your *&%$#! . I found the track quite easy with few hazards for anyone with more than one brain cell... What do others think? Is this the way of the future?

Sign.jpg (188.25 KiB) Viewed 19824 times

[Drifting]

I'm all for it. Never underestimate the...uh...well...lack of knowledge, insight, logic, commonsense, etc of JohnQ Public.

[trickos]

Was there in fact a railway crossing? Or have that they thrown that in for good measure. They've covered every other base.

[Son of a Beach]

No mention of peanuts. They're not even trying!

[Ent]

The sad thing is I had a person that loved such signs reporting to me. I can tell you it is near impossible to stop such Vogons from covering the landscape with signs. It is about time the Victorian and NSW courts were brought account as they are driving such things with stupid decision after stupid decision. Fortunately to-date the High Court has struck down a few of their more extreme decisions. Surely walking along a track should be a clue, maybe even a hint that there might be trip harzards. Signs should only warn if conditions are not reasonable forseeable, such as mine shafts or sink holes existing.

Cheers Brett

[tastrax]

At least it was only at the start of the track... if some folk had their way they would be at each of the hazards along the track!

[WarrenH]

I think that I've forgotten what it was like to live in a world where I’m trusted not to be stupid.

Sailors have changed an old quote, which I fully support.

... drown the duffers now
less the duffers don't drown

Survival of the fittest has been important for our species and knowing that the gene pool is being polluted by prolonging the life of morons is not cool.

I'm all for ripping down these signs ...



... less the duffers don't drown.

Warren.

[woka]

Hmmm... don't like those exclamation marks - nasty, dangerous things.

[michael_p]

John W,

I saw a photo of that sign a few weeks back and nearly fell over in disbelief. Possibly one of the worst examples of the nanny state gone wild.

Is this the way of the future?

You bet it is.

The number of these warning signs is increasing. Even though I hate ambulance chasers the total blame cannot be placed on them. I think this type of warning sign is primarily the downside of the Civil Liabilities Act. Basically once you are warned then the risk is all yours and if you have an accident you can't sue the council or whoever because you were "warned of the danger". So we had better get use to it.

Back to the important stuff. Did you see the Emus?

Cheers,
Michael.

[WarrenH]

"Did you see the Emus?"

Did I see the Emus? ... no way. I would like to see Emus but I was far too scared to look at anything except that life threatening dirty ribbon of death and my fuel gauge ... I felt that I was being watched the whole time, you know. I can't afford $11,000 if I accidentally leave the road, while rubber-necking Emus.




What NSWP&WS needs, to is have a real erection saying ... PARANOIDS IN THE BUSH YOU ARE BEING WATCHED !

So if anyone has a psychotic episode caused by stress from poor visibility from continually checking through one's own dust, then all *&^%$#@! are covered.

This part of the Kanangra-Boyd Wilderness should be renamed on the topos ... signsᴙus. Endless pollution of our parks by signage that I doubt is even read. Now, if we were to pollute the parks?

Warren.

[Tony]

Signs do not mean a thing to some people.

I visited the Mulligans Flat nature reserve on the weekend. The Mulligans Flat is a area near Canberra that has been animal proofed fenced off and has had the Feral animals removed and some long gone native species replaced.

On Sunday we saw a family walking a dog in this area and when challenged they told us that it was OK to walk their dog as the no dog signs (and there where many) really meant "Please" and that the rangers did not fine people walking dogs so it was OK to walk their dog. They where leaving the reserve as we arrived so I did not report them.

Tony

[wander]

I'm sorry, could you explain the logic behind the "No Dogs" sign meaning "please walk your dog here again".

[Tony]

Hi wander,

I'm sorry, could you explain the logic behind the "No Dogs" sign meaning "please walk your dog here again".

I am trying to work that one out too, most of the signs actually are "no dogs allowed" and they also had a sign which was a picture of a dog with the circle and line across it.

I think they where at the shallow end of the gene pool. The new suburb that is being built next to the nature park is a no free roaming cats allowed zone, I expect will be ignored also.

Tony

[Drifting]

I want to be a Vogon when I growv up!

[north-north-west]

I'm all for ripping down these signs ...

Yeah, I was laughing my head off when I saw that sign last summer.
Particularly as it's a very good unsealed road, even in the pouring rain. But anywhere that's popular with the loopies has to be signed like that. Or they'll bankrupt the council/Parks service with their court cases.

[johnw]

Was there in fact a railway crossing?...

Umm, no.

[Nick S]

Gored by a cow or horse! what a way to go, has that even happened before, ever?
And all those yellow squares on the left of the sign - TRAIN!!! EXCLAMATION MARK!!
If I didn't know better I'd turn around right there and curl up in bed..

[johnw]

...Back to the important stuff. Did you see the Emus?

There are emus? Nope, no time to look for them. I was too busy watching out for exclamation marks! Oh no, there's one now. Splat...too late...

[Ent]

The all time ripper was a sign on the Western Explorer that prominately stated that "No or limited mobile phone coverage" and this was designed to frighten people from using the road. Curious thing is apart from Telstra such signs should exist on most rural roads in Tassie for other communicaton providers so go figure. Would like the met the Vogon behind that sign. Maybe need to put a few warning signs around his office. "Warning Vogon".

Cheers Brett

[WarrenH]

In one of the parks in the US, I think it is in Colorado, there is a National Parks Service sign that say something like, THE STATE OF COLORADO WILL PAY A REWARD OF $100,000 FOR INFORMATION LEADING TO THE ARREST AND CONVICTION OF PERSON OR PERSONS DAMAGING SIGNS.

Then the other signs around it say things like ... LITTERING $250 and NO CAMPING $100 and the ILLEGAL DUMPING OF AUTOMOBILES $500.

That is the way to go, what is most important is the welfare of the signs.

Warren.

[Tony]

Signs signs everywhere there are signs.

When driving from left to right (heading back to Canberra) on this small section of road in the southern ACT there are around 25 signs warning of the bend and single lane bridge, if you look carefully you can see some in this Google Earth picture, counting the signs are a source of amusement returning from a walk.

Tony

[johnw]

...Would like the met the Vogon behind that sign. Maybe need to put a few warning signs around his office. "Warning Vogon".

"Vogons are one of the most unpleasant races in the galaxy. Not actually evil, but bad-tempered, bureaucratic, officious and callous. They wouldn't even lift a finger to save their own grandmothers from the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal without orders signed in triplicate, sent in, sent back, queried, lost, found, subjected to public inquiry, lost again, and finally buried in soft peat for three months and recycled as firelighters."
- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Signs signs everywhere there are signs.

"Sign Sign everywhere a sign
Blocking out the scenery breaking my mind
Do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign"
Signs - Five Man Electrical Band, 1971

I'm a child of the 60's/70's...

[flatfoot]

I'm all for ripping down these signs ...

Yeah, I was laughing my head off when I saw that sign last summer.
Particularly as it's a very good unsealed road, even in the pouring rain. But anywhere that's popular with the loopies has to be signed like that. Or they'll bankrupt the council/Parks service with their court cases.

I think this is a sign of the times

I drove the road to yerranderie circa '93. I remember that it was a bone-jarring road at the time. I was driving a Suzuki Vitara that I had at the time.

The amusing stories that you hear these days are of people blindly following GPS directions. This is a recent story but there have been plenty of others:

http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/cartech/holiday-travellers-led-astray-by-gps-20100105-lr1s.html

[Macca81]

On saturday i took some scouts caving down at mystery creek cave. at the start of the track the warning sign told me to watch out for holes in the ground (or words to that effect, i cant remember the actual wording now). its interesting that im walking along this track to get to a hole in the ground that i intend to spend the next 6 hours in, but the sign is warning me not to go into the hole...

[Neil Grose]

I remember many years ago a well-meaning teacher pinched a slippery surface sign and hooked it up to a tree at the start of a particularly slippery decent on Mt Cameron down off the east side of Wedgetail Peak.
The first four kids looked up to read the sign and slipped down the granite slope instead of looking where they were going.
I'm not sure whether that says more about teachers or signs...

[wander]

Macca81, so if there was asign warning not to go in the hole why did you go in the hole?

[Ent]

Personal favourite sign was a low clearance sign. Ok I am tall but it was on a large pipe at around 6'2" high so most would not need to be warned but the result was clearance was dropped by six inches and instead of hitting your head on a rounded pipe you were instead gashed accross the forehead with the sharp edge of the sign It takes a very special person to come up with that sort of signage approach and sadly they must be bredding at rate much greater than the population average.

A friend of mine hunts out the signs and stages an accident as per the graphic for her collection. Surely we can accept that trip hazards will be on most walking tracks?

Cheers Brett

[Macca81]

Macca81, so if there was asign warning not to go in the hole why did you go in the hole?

because thats the whole idea of caving...

[enduro]

On Saturday I tried out a new coastal walking track that has only been open for 6 months or so. Definitely not a wilderness bushwalking experience but it was very enjoyable with some spectacular coastal views, and generally a credit to those who planned and constructed it. But an enormous warning sign near the start (shown below) had me gobsmacked. Talk about covering your *&%$#! . I found the track quite easy with few hazards for anyone with more than one brain cell... What do others think? Is this the way of the future?

I have often seen this sort of thing before, even at beaches, local parks etc. Unfortunately, we (the majority of us) humans have lost the understanding of how to move about in a natural environment and have a strong need for surfaces to be even, reliable and clean. Clean water need be at arms reach so we can use too much of it for a small purpose and if food looks good, it is safe to eat. Because our parents and peers didn't even have the knowledge to train us to live in the natural world, when something goes wrong we have been programmed by other sources to blame someone else for our own actions, our lack of insight, our choices:

"I chose to dive into water that I could not see the bottom of."
"I chose to stand on the edge of a cliff and didn't know I would be blown off by the wind because I couldn't see it coming."
"I chose to test the laws of natural selection."

[climberman]

In defense of councils and agencies, if they didn't keep getting sued, with the legal cases often hinging on how foreseeable the risk was and if it was foreseeable why didn't they foresee it, and then if they did, why didn't they do anything about it, what option do they have ?

For most agencies, the cheapest (and legally and physically safest) option is to close the track/road. They tend to not like that though.... it kind of defeats the purpose.

I'd rather see a sign, than not be 'allowed' somewhere.

While we criticise those who bring such cases, remember that they are often heavily incapacitated for life, and their insurers are looking for someone with deep pockets. I don't think it has anything to do with a diminished sense of personal blame or responsibility, it's to do with agencies undertaking reasonable protection based on the court cases of the day.

w.r.t the Yerranderie sign - based on my trips there in the late 90's, it seems particularly appropriate. It's near other tourist roads, and if you anticiapted some assistance once arrived there for anything except a yarn with Val, you'd be left sorely wanting.

Not everyone has spent a lifetime in the bush with an intimate knowledge of the southern Blueys... but do we encourage their experience, or denigrate them for trying ?