Warning Signs

And the power of belief.

I live on a small country road, but as is often the case, it has been “discovered” by those looking for a shortcut to save a few minutes in busy times or by cost-conscious commercial vehicle drivers looking to save a few hundred yards despite its restricted weight limit.

The road will be closed for three months to repair the damage to the road, and a hundred yards or so of a “heritage wall” (the one in the picture), done by those ignoring the signs.

My office looks out onto the road, and I have been fascinated to see the same drivers, every day so far, taking their usual shortcuts in the apparent belief that either the road is not really closed or that they can somehow get by. They can’t. It is very seriously closed.

This morning, a driver in an HGV, who was here before this week, sat for ten minutes, just looking at it, as though he could somehow cause it to disappear in some Vulcan mind trick before having to reverse his lorry (again) around three hundred yards to where he could turn …