Several stop signs around campus are obscured or completely hidden from sight. In a sample taken of the city in an area near campus, three stop signs were found to be partly covered up by foliage out of 25 signs observed. One sign was completely covered and only visible from a few feet away when driving.
“Over by the K.A. house, I was driving along and had to slam on my breaks because the sign was partly covered up by a tree,” freshman of the Arts and Sciences College, Hugo Macias said. “I was in the middle of the intersection before I noticed the sign.”
It may be stop signs are not a high enough priority to city officials.
“There aren’t as many stop signs here in the south as back home,” history professor John C. Bergman said. “Up north there are four way stops at just about every intersection.”
Some people claim in a small town like this, stop signs are almost optional.
“It’s the southern culture,” Bergman said. “There’s a kind of self imposed moderation to things down here, moderation in a lot of things. I guess stop signs were included.”
The Commerce police chief, Kerry Crews, said the topic of obscured stop signs does not come up there at the station very often.
“We are aware of some of the problems,” Crews said. “We do let the city know where the stop sign is at, and if it’s obscured. Then the public works department will take care of it and trim the bushes back, or if it’s private property, they’ll talk with the owner.”
The police station does not receive very many complaints of obscured stop signs, according to Crews.
“We do write several tickets for people running stop signs, but rarely do they try and justify it with the stop sign being obscured,” Crews said.
The police chief went on to say, if any one knows of any stop signs in the city that are obscured, they should give the police station a call to report it. The number for the Commerce police station is (903) 886-1139, and city manager Dion Miller can be reached at (903) 886-1124.