Launch
welcomed by nature and motoring groups hoping to cut deaths and accidents
Tue 18
Jun 2019 00.23 BSTLast modified on Tue 18 Jun
2019 07.15 BST
After
decades of being killed on the road in huge numbers, hedgehogs are finally to
get their own road sign warning drivers to watch out for them.
The new
signs bearing the silhouette of the animal in a red triangle will be placed in
areas where the accident risk is highest and will also be used to warn about
squirrels, badgers, otters and other small animals crossing.
Ministers
announced the proposed new signage on Monday as part of a scheme to reduce the
number of animal road deaths and the number of accidents caused by people
swerving to avoid animals or motorcyclists skidding on roadkill.
The new
road sign to improve road safety and protect hedgehogs. Photograph: Department
for Transport
Hedgehog
numbers have
fallen by more than half in the UK countryside since 2000, with
roads a particular hazard for the mammals because they curl up into a ball in
the face of danger.
The signs
are the first featuring a new animal in a quarter of a century: they join those
warning motorists about large animals, such as deer, cows, sheep and horses,
and the smaller ones, such as migratory toads and wildfowl.
“We have
some of the safest roads in the world but we are always looking at how we can
make them safer. Motorcyclists and other vulnerable road users are particularly
at risk,” the transport secretary, Chris
Grayling, told Monday’s launch.
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