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Show Sign Vandalism Costs Are Heavy, Motorists Endangered The State Road Commission of Utah is seeking an answer to unmitigated vandalism and destruction de-struction of highway signs that Is costing the state $100,000 annually an-nually and endangering the lives of motorists on the highways. Trigger-happy motorists account ac-count for most of tne sign damage, dam-age, reports C. Taylor Burton, director di-rector of highways. However, a new twist in sign destruction occurred oc-curred two years ago on Utah road 29, from Panguitch to Pan-guitch Pan-guitch Lake, a popular attraction attrac-tion in the Dixie National Forest. For-est. Along this steep and torturous tortur-ous course, highway maintenance crews discovered a total of seven caution signs that had been neatly neat-ly sawed off at the base and left on the side road. "InHiviriiia la who malc a practice prac-tice of obliterating highway, signs should be aware of the dangers of this kind of nefarious nefari-ous action," emphasized Mr. Burton. Bur-ton. "For the unsuspecting motorist mo-torist traveling in an area where signs have been removed or mutilated, mu-tilated, this practice is as serious seri-ous as playing Russian Roulette with all the odds against him. It is costly, it endangers lives and contributes to accident increase." Highway signs cost approximately approxi-mately $10 each, Mr. Burton explained. ex-plained. The replacement cost is only a small part of what it actually ac-tually costs the taxpayers. When a sign is damaged it is necessary neces-sary for road crews to unbolt It and take it to the shops for repair. re-pair. Much personnel time is lost, plus other costs. |