Genius Mayor Leaves Intersection with No Street Signs to "Calm Traffic"

Oh, how things have changed. Less than one hundred years later, crossroads are pretty deadly places even if they are fitted with signs, traffic lights, and a police officer to keep an eye on all the drivers. We've got rules for everything, but we've also got ways of evading every last one of them.

Sometimes, though, these reckless drivers can get a helping hand from the very authorities who are supposed to help make traffic as safe as possible. One mayor from an unknown town in Romania decided that the street signs mounted in an intersection cluttered the vision of drivers, and that traffic flow would actually benefit if they were removed.

And so, as flabbergasted as you might be by his decision, that was exactly what he did. The result? Let's just say that nobody should be surprised if they found out he had an agreement with an insurance company or a car workshop. The number of collisions in that particular intersection went through the roof, but the mayor was adamant about his decision.

When he was confronted about it during a meeting, he dismissed it as a "minor problem." Luckily, none of the drivers involved in the accidents were probably present, or the mayor's life would have been threatened. Sick of the authorities' lack of interest in resolving the situation they had created, one individual decided to place a camera overlooking the intersection and see what he could catch.

Needless to say, the results are spectacular. And you can't really blame the drivers: usually, when going into an intersection with an equally tiered road and there's no sign saying you have to yield, that means you have the right of passage. So you exert that right. Perhaps the worst part is that in two of the incidents caught on the camera, there are two cars who get hit despite having stopped and being nothing more than mere bystanders at the time.

Of course, there are those drivers that would have probably crashed even if the signs were still in place. That dude in the black sedan overtaking the white one who was turning left is the best example. It doesn't even matter all that much whether the vehicle in front was signaling its intention to turn: you don't overtake in an intersection that has no signs.

With one simple move, a mayor managed to send the drivers back into the Dark Ages, and it seems we're just not ready to cope with it anymore. Anarchy may be great on paper, but out there in the real world, it doesn't take long for people to realize they need some sets of rules to survive. It's the same with traffic, and this little video is about the most concentrated plea you can find.