Czech Republic Proposes Winter Tyre Sign

Czech transport Minister Aleš Řebíček has proposed a white-on-blue winter tyre sign. The idea is to warn drivers that they can only proceed on a particular if they have winter-tyres fitted to their cars. Drivers with summer-tyres will apparently be “obliged” to find an alternative route. At present, the proposed law only requires the signature of the Transport Minister to come into effect, and is set to appear on roads from March onwards. This means it is likely to be on display from the 1 November 2008 until 30 April 2009.

According to local media reports, the proposal underscores recent government initiatives to increase road-safety in the face of Czech Republic’s traffic accident and fatalities rate. Official preliminary figures show the Czech Republic had around 1111 road fatalities in 2007, despite the recent introduction of a penalty points system for Czech drivers.

Czech Radio reports that concerns have been raised that international drivers may struggle to understand the new sign, particularly as it will be exclusive to the Czech Republic. Despite this, a recent poll by the news website Novinky.cz revealed that more than 82 per cent of respondents were in favour of mandating the use of winter tyres. Winter tyres are already mandated in neighbouring Austria.