A road safety sign has met with harsh public criticism following fears that it may cause more accidents than it prevents.

Drivers negotiating a tricky bend in West Yorkshire have complained that the road sign in question confusingly urges them to keep their eyes on the road.

The billboard, in pale blue and orange and partially obscured by a tree and a lamppost, features giant quotation marks around the message ‘oiiiii eyes on the road’. The sign also says, albeit in much smaller text, ‘what’s so important?’ and ‘concentrate on the road’.

The positioning of the sign, next to a bridge and on a 90 degree corner at the entrance to the village of Copley, is part of a campaign to help improve rural road safety. The Safer Roads Group in West Yorkshire, who erected the billboard and several other similar messages across the county, said it hoped to highlight the issue to thoughtless drivers. However, users of the back road where the ad is placed argue that it is more likely to cause them to crash.

One village resident, who passes the contentious corner every day after work, said that the message was self defeating, and although while sound in theory, would surely end in an accident. Geoffrey Williams, 44, said that he could not understand the logic behind a billboard that encouraged the reader to concentrate on the road. He added that to showcase a safety campaign on one of the district’s worse corners was nonsense.