January 20th 2003 was the single most deadly day on the Western Highway when 6 people were killed and 9 more injured in an accident between miles 27 and 28. A year later in January of 2004, the Ministry of Transport working with F&G Insurance Company put up a billboard, which doubled as a memorial near the scene of the accident. In what was quite an engineering feat, a wrecked pickup truck was impressively mounted on top of the billboard marking the spot where the tragedy had occurred. At the time the sign, which cost F&G close to $28,000, was fully sanctioned, endorsed and promoted by the Ministry of Transport. Now, quite inexplicably, a year later the same Ministry has ordered F&G to remove the sign.
Why? In a letter obtained by 7NEWS, Chief Engineer Cadet Henderson writes that government has noticed with "concern the illegal occupation of the public road reserve occasioned by the installation of a private signboard." Henderson continues that "advertisements and billboards are not permitted within the public road reserve and therefore must be removed immediately."
The letter was dated January 31st and it gave F&G 14 days to remove the sign. Today is January 15th meaning the sign should have been removed yesterday, but it wasn't. An F&G representative today told us they aren't planning to remove it either and have written back to Henderson. In their reply, F&G notes that it was a mutual project between government and their company and more importantly, government approached them about the project.
We should note F&G, or this particular billboard, isn't being singled out. Reports reaching us are that Ministry of Works is on a campaign to remove all signs and billboards illegally perched on government land reserved for roads.
