Bright Idea

It has been very foggy here this last week. In fact, it is almost 11 o’clock in the morning and I can only now see the house on the other side of the street. The trees beyond are still dark shapes shrouded in mist.
Somebody has foreseen trouble on these foggy mornings with traffic in the area around Southland shopping centre. This is a very busy place at the best of times. I hate to imagine what it must be like during a dark and foggy morning peak. And foreseeing trouble somebody has done something about it.
Just as you approach the junction of the Nepean Highway and Cheltenham road they have set up a road side sign. It is only of moderate size but makes up for it with flashing yellow lights that spell out the words:
PAY ATTENTION
Alternating with:
HIGH COLLISION INTERSECTION
I can only assume that this is supposed to promote road safety. But I wonder how a flashing yellow sign, placed right on the intersection isn’t a distraction. When visibility is poor I need to concentrate on the road not on new eye catching signs looming up at me out of the fog.
I have visions of early morning drivers being distracted by the flashing yellow lights and concentrating more on figuring out what the sign says than on the road in front of them.
Well done for effort but I’m not convinced that this will prevent more accidents than it causes.