New Stuart Highway trivia road signs leave scores of motorists perplexed

Those driving along the Stuart Highway may have been left a bit stumped by new road signs unveiled last week – but it’s very much intentional.

Travellers on the Stuart Highway have seriously questioned a series of baffling road signs put up last month.

However, it is very much intentional, with Katherine Council encouraging motorists to battle fatigue behind the wheel by thinking about trivia questions.

The new trivia signs along a 40km stretch of highway quiz motorists on general knowledge questions and the answers are revealed further down the road.

Katherine Council chief executive Ingrid Stonhill with Councillor Jeremy Trembath at the unveiling of a new trivia road sign intended to stamp out driver fatigue. Picture: Supplied

It follows similar road safety projects in Queensland and New South Walestargeting fatigue hot spots on popular stretches of highway.

Katherine mayor Lis Clark said motorists could expect to see the signs heading south from Darwin into Katherine while other fatigue zones are also being examined.

“The driver reviver signs are not new and are well used in many other Australian states, but this initiative by the council is a first for the NT,” Ms Clark said.

Katherine Town Council chief executive Ingrid Stonhill said that road crashes and reckless driving most often occurred in the 40km approaching Katherine.

“It’s in that zone that residents returning home to Katherine start to relax but can also become frustrated by the lack of overtaking opportunities when they get stuck behind a road train or caravan,” she said.

“The Stuart Highway between Katherine and Darwin doesn’t have enough rest stops or overtaking lanes, making it a long drive without breaks to complete in a day, and research shows on a long road trip, the closer drivers are to home, they start to relax.”

The project comes less than two weeks after the Automobile Association of the Northern Territory urged the government to publicly release road safety data, including information about road quality, fatal crash causes and effectiveness of law enforcement activities.

Last Tuesday, both levels of government announced that they would establish a transparency regime on the data.

AANT chief executive Simon Matthias said there was a 21.6 per cent year-on-year increase in road fatalities in Top End over the last year, with 19 people killed over the last four months alone.

Originally published as New Stuart Highway trivia road signs leave scores of motorists perplexed