On the Skids in Carbon Canyon #11023

Well, why not?  The most recent installment of the "On the Skids" series, a little more than a week back on 26 February, showed another instance of an eastbound driver taking the middle level of the S-curve on the Chino Hills side of Carbon Canyon too fast and obliterating an arrow sign there, it is hardly surprising that the other sign of that type (visible at the far left of the photo taken at that time and reproduced below) would follow.



Now you see it . . . the little arrow sign at the left was there on 25 February.

And, so it has.  Over the weekend, the second sign, on a steel support, was pummeled and left battered on the shoulder, only to be, along with its wooden legged cousin, removed today, presumably for refashioning.

Then, these two signs will be put back, only at some point in the not-too-distant future, if recent history is any guide, to be unceremoniously be the targets of further indiscretions by errant drivers.

Now you don't . . . gone as of 4 March.  A rear view mirror is one of several pieces of debris to mark the occasion.

Not that these signs are really needed, are they?  There is the much larger diamond-shaped one that clearly and amply warns of the curve and recommends an unrealistic 15 mph to boot—and this sign, too, has been dislodged and dismembered on a number of occasions over recent years.  Plus, there are the double yellow center line with reflectors and the white shoulder lines. 

But for speeders or those chemically impaired (or both), these devices are truly irrelevant.  The only way to mitigate the behavior is actual human enforcement, but this simply doesn't happen.  So, CalTrans does what it can to repair and replace and we taxpayers continue to pony up the funds for the ongoing cycle of damage and destruction. 

It really is amazing that more injury and worse doesn't happen given the frequency of off-the-highway maneuverings that take place every day and night on Carbon Canyon Road--this is probably why playing the percentages is how officialdom chooses to (not) deal with the dangerous driving.