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New Zealand Creates Safety Billboard That Bleeds When It Rains

Posted by samzenpus on from the when-it-rains-it-gores dept.

Officials in Papakura, New Zealand have come up with a billboard that bleeds when it rains. They hope it will encourage drivers to slow down when the weather makes conditions dangerous. Since the billboards have been erected, there hasn't been a fatal accident in the area.

30 of 137 comments (clear)

  1. Supernaturally effective by Bovius · · Score: 4, Funny

    The power of advertising compels you! To drive safely!

  2. In the U.S. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...we ought to erect a similar billboard that shits when politicians do ANYTHING.

    1. Re:In the U.S. by tuxedobob · · Score: 3, Funny

      You're just trying to get goatse posted on a billboard in your community, aren't you?

    2. Re:In the U.S. by Landshark17 · · Score: 2, Funny

      No good - it'd pile up so fast you'd need wings to stay above it.

      --
      This sig is false.
    3. Re:In the U.S. by Landshark17 · · Score: 2, Funny

      My bad, misread your post as "shits anytime politicians bullshit."

      --
      This sig is false.
    4. Re:In the U.S. by DinDaddy · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Can you please explain the difference?

  3. How soon before... by Registered+Coward+v2 · · Score: 4, Funny

    someone sees Jesus in one of the billboards?

    --
    I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
  4. Zero of nothing by Shihar · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Since the billboards have been erected, there hasn't been a fatal accident in the area.

    Of course, being New Zealand, since the billboard was erected there have not been any cars there either.

    1. Re:Zero of nothing by kreyszig · · Score: 3, Informative

      Actually, anyone wanting to go south of Auckland pretty much has to go through Papakura, so this is quite some achievment.

    2. Re:Zero of nothing by gnick · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Thats really a small number though that could depend on multiple variables. How do we know that the same amount of cars passed through it? For all we know there could have been a road that was under construction that people use now. Also did the road get any more improvements? What about weather? There would be a big difference if last year there were lots of storms. Etc.

      "Small" is entirely relative. Granted that road improvements, construction, weather, etc. could have affected numbers. (Freakish weather is less "variable" than the presence of bleeding billboards.) You are correct that there aren't enough data to do a thorough statistical analysis, but you seem to be grasping at straws. From 14 to 0 could be very statistically significant depending on the standard deviation from year-to-year and the elimination of outside influence. Just because 14 is "small" compared to your local Interstate exit doesn't mean that it's negligible for this stretch of NZ highway.

      "TFA" is worthless, but speculating on potential spikes in common, relatively flat variables should not eliminate the speculation on effects of observable variation in very prominent and very uncommon variables. Put more simply, and in a car analogy, if you install a set of used tires and 2 blow out during your normal commute home, look first at your tires and then at potential anomalies in the road.

      Plus, for all we know, most of those 14 deaths could have happened with one or two cars.

      OK, if you're in NZ (or really pretty much anywhere but India) 14 people in "one or two" cars would be a lot. 14 people in my car (or most any car) would require opening the sun-roof and me meeting a bunch of midgets. If you're going to pedant statistics, refrain from speculating on obvious outliers. 14 deaths in a 1-car wreck on a NZ highway? *Scoff*

      --
      He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
    3. Re:Zero of nothing by Mozk · · Score: 2, Insightful

      aren't enough data

      Knock it off. Just use "data" as a singular noun like everybody else.

      --
      No existe.
  5. I'd be too busy by Theoboley · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Staring at the billboard/horror show to concentrate on driving, thus causing an accident. /fail

    --
    Stupidity only gets you so far, then you've gotta try
  6. I could be wrong here... by thewils · · Score: 2, Funny

    but I don't think it's really blood. Seems to be some kind of red liquid to simulate blood, I think.

    "Leaking" might be a better word to describe it, I wouldn't use "bleeding" myself.

    --
    Once I was a four stone apology. Now I am two separate gorillas.
    1. Re:I could be wrong here... by oldspewey · · Score: 4, Funny

      but I don't think it's really blood.

      In related news, the New Zealand Health Bureau has stepped up calls for donors in the midst of what is being called "the greatest blood shortage crisis our nation has ever known."

      --
      If libertarians are so opposed to effective government, why don't they all move to Somalia?
  7. How Long? by sycodon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Until someone crashes while gawking at the bleeding billboards?

    --
    When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
  8. ...No deaths, except for those ones... by RyanFenton · · Score: 2, Funny

    Not reported are those deaths caused by folks either watching or cringing away from the image of a giant boy bleeding out his nostrils and eyebrows. ...followed by a sign that said...burma shave.

    Ryan Fenton

  9. with a few more tweaks by circletimessquare · · Score: 3, Funny

    they also got the billboard to shit bats

    making it the most goth/ emo billboard in the world

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
  10. Awesome much? by S7urm · · Score: 2, Funny

    I think that is a pretty cool idea, what better way to get your average 16 year old chucklehead to pay attention and not drive head on into my mom on the road, then to remind him that getting in accidents cause signs to bleed at random in New Zealand...........and also forces people to kill cute puppies and kittens.........

    Damn kids! get off my lawn!

    --
    "This is the value of a summer spent and a winter earned"
  11. eh? by poetmatt · · Score: 2, Funny

    Did they really realize that they basically made a menstruating billboard? At least it doesn't yell at people or have emotional breakdowns.

  12. If you want to get people to slow down in the rain by gurps_npc · · Score: 5, Funny

    Put an electronic headline news billboard up. Then when it rains, put a fake headline like "Be on the look out for a nude 20 year old girl on Highway 3" I assure you, all the men will slow down and be on the look out for her.

    --
    excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
  13. The appropriate name for this new material? by dmomo · · Score: 2, Funny

    Gore-Techs

  14. Rain isn't causing those accidents by redshirt · · Score: 5, Funny

    After watching the video, the real cause of accidents is clear: they drive on the wrong side of the road!

    1. Re:Rain isn't causing those accidents by GreatDrok · · Score: 3, Interesting

      "After watching the video, the real cause of accidents is clear: they drive on the wrong side of the road!"

      Amusing although more than half (66%) of the world's population actually does drive on the left but that is besides the point.

      NZ has a real problem with bad drivers. People don't have any clue about stopping distances so tailgating is rampant so the number of related accidents is very high. The road surfaces aren't very good, cars aren't kept in good condition as the Warrant Of Fitness is cursory at best compared with say the MOT in the UK. I was appalled when I first moved here to find that the tyres on my recently bought car were OK as far as the WOF was concerned because they had tread on 80% of the surface (bald around the edges due to misaligned tracking) and passed just fine. The car would slide and aquaplane in the rain so I replaced the whole lot.

      Basically, bad road awareness and poorly maintained cars is the main problem. Oh, and no insurance is required, not even third party so if someone crashes into you and they are uninsured you are stuffed. I bought fully comp insurance because of this.

      The only real blessing is that the speed limit is so low (100 kph or 62 MPH max even on the few stretches of motorway) but even so, NZ drivers are scary!

      --
      "I have the attention span of a strobe lit goldfish, please get to the point quickly!"
    2. Re:Rain isn't causing those accidents by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Amusing although more than half (66%) of the world's population actually does drive on the left but that is besides the point.

      Population of people, or of cars?

      No fair counting India where the number of people greatly exceeds the number of cars -- vehicles per capita is 12 out of 1000 versus the US where it is 765 per 1000.

      --
      When information is power, privacy is freedom.
    3. Re:Rain isn't causing those accidents by F�an�ro · · Score: 3, Funny

      And if you count India, you should count it for both sides.
      I am not sure how to tell which side they prefer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjrEQaG5jPM

  15. Well gosh darn! by denzacar · · Score: 2, Funny

    We should better let them know then.
    They should immediately start cutting and stabbing actual living things on top of that billboard, or stop calling it "bleeding".

    --
    Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
  16. Correlation is not causation by Tyler+Durden · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why should we accept that the rain causes the billboard to bleed? Perhaps the bleeding of the billboard causes the rain...

    --
    Happy people make bad consumers.
  17. You Are. by davegravy · · Score: 3, Funny

    Obviously they collected the blood from past accident victims (who never noticed the fine print on their organ donation card authorizing the use of their blood in accident prevention advertising campaigns)

  18. Vista Pollution by Fieryphoenix · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's getting impossible to enjoy the scenery there any more because of all the bloody signs!

  19. Re:Al Gore's hyperbole knows no bounds by dotgain · · Score: 2, Interesting
    About a year ago in Matakana, NZ they erected a series of signs, no less than 12 of them, all only a couple of metres apart. The series of pictures was meant to represent one's life flashing before one's eyes, but had two unintended (but obvious side effects):
    1. It took people's eyes off the road for a good few seconds to try and figure out what all the signs were
    2. Due to the sheer number of posts being driven into the ground without planning or consent, communications fiber in the ground didn't stand a chance.

    The boards were all ordered down a couple of weeks later, but hey, at least we were all a little be safer for the time! Seriously, all road safety awareness in NZ is this pathetic.