Few people know it but approaching road signs with the aim of smearing or removing them can cause very high fines and criminal consequences of a certain level.
Road signs go to discipline the movement of both pedestrians and vehiclesfor this reason, if someone removes or smears road signs, putting public safety at risk, they face dangerous consequences, very heavy penalties.
The law sanctions those who destroy or remove signs for acts of vandalism, as well as the owner bodies that they do not place road signsi where needed, when needed.
What does article 673 of the penal code say about road signs
This issue is dealt with by article 673 of the penal code, which states that those who smear, damage, remove, road signs are punishable by imprisonment of up to three months with the addition of a substantial fine, up to a maximum of €516.
So you don’t mess around with the law and with the highway code, just remove or ruin a road sign to even risk prison. In this case, the attempt need not be successful.
If you are caught by the police or cameras while trying to smear or damage a sign, without succeeding in the objective, you will still be charged and punished, The same thing happens if an accident is caused as a result of the act of vandalism.
Administrative sanction and obligations envisaged for those who commit the crime
In all these cases, the highway code sanctions those who remove the signs or make them dirty, with an administrative fine ranging from €42 to €173 with the obligation to restore the signs to normal conditions. TAll this at your own expense.
Instead, if due to an accident a car goes off the road and destroys the signs, the driver is responsible for the accident and is required to reimburse the damages, but not directly, because in this case the insurance takes care of it with the trigger of the malus.
Meanwhile, the owner and operator of the road where the accident occurred is required to immediately repair the damage without waiting for any compensation from the person responsible because signs must be replaced or put back into service immediately to avoid further accidents.
The law does not admit ignorance or misinformation, so it is advisable to inform yourself and keep up to date on the news of the highway code which is frequently modified, if you don’t want to have even serious problems even with justice.
The article Road signs, even just approaching is prohibited: if you do it, they’ll empty your wallet comes from Motori News.
