Turn Back, Godzilla Attack!

For the last couple of days, at the corner of Vallejo and Van Ness, an official traffic alert sign has been sending an outrageously alarming message to drivers going south on San Francisco Highway 101. "TURN BACK," it says. Fifteen seconds later the illuminated message changes to "GODZILLA ATTACK!"



A friend who saw it driving up Van Ness this morning thought that it must have been the work of a hacker playing a practical joke, but it's been up for a couple of days, so it looks more like some SF City and County Department taking money from a publicist to create a weirdly dangerous promotional stunt for the upcoming Hollywood remake of the original Godzilla movie. What about some tourist who takes them literally and does a sudden U-Turn in the middle of traffic? This is a municipal liability lawsuit just asking to be filed.

Update: Today the sign alternated between "CITY CLOSED / IT'S TOO DAMN HOT" so it is a prankster after all. Click here for a KRON story. What's telling is that no city authorities bothered to do anything about it for three days on one of the busiest roadways in San Francisco. It's good to know they are paying attention.