Sofia, Bulgaria | 08 June 2021
During a special report on a main Bulgarian TV channel, ERF President explained the importance of traffic signs to ensure road safety especially in local municipalities last 27 February with powerful outputs until now.
Concretely, the intervention was followed by several alerts from viewers addressing the existence of fake road signs near the city of Tarnovo and other roads in the country. As consequence, an inspection was completed by the NGO European Center for Transport Policies (ECTS) proving the existence of very poor-quality signs with very low reflectivity completely illegible during night conditions. The material provider was obliged to replace several signs without additional costs for public authorities.
During last months, inspections have continued showing a considerable amount of road signs in the regions of Varna, Targovishte and Shumen that do not reach minimum technical performance requirements either. In addition, a road audit in the recently-built Plovdiv Ring was carried by the Road Infrastructure Agency and the State Agency for Road Safety with high interest from the media. As result, infrastructure experts from 3M participating in the action have accordingly proposed an increase of the reflectivity class of traffic signs that will be ready before this summer.
Further collaboration between our sector and road authorities is expected to continue by sharing technical know-how towards safer and fully-compliant infrastructure elements. In words of Rik Nuyttens (ERF President): “Our industry intensively works on developing the highest standards to ensure minimum safety conditions even under worst visibility and weather conditions. Alerts from both citizens and authorities after regular inspections stand as main collaborative element with our sector to identify deployment of poor signs that unfairly damage the industry’s reputation”
More about the inspections in press: article 1 and article 2.
