Council goes nude to cut car speeds

COUNCILLORS have posed nude for a shock poster calling on motorists to obey their village’s new 30kph speed limit.

With their modesty covered by strategically placed speed signs, Touillon-et-Loutelet mayor Sébastien Populaire and the one woman and nine male councillors say the move is to protect children in the Doubs village’s main street – which does not have a pavement.

Mr Populaire told newspaper Est Républicain that the population of the Franche-Comté village had grown four-fold over the past 30 years and each day about 60 children had to share the road with traffic.

He said they wanted to improve safety and he had thought it best to use humour rather than heavy-handed enforcement and a shock poster campaign with lots of blood.

The giant poster was set up last night across the street with the line-up of nude councillors and the message: “Thanks for our children.”

Les élus de Touillon-et-Loutelet (Doubs) posent nu pour la sécurité routière (via @lestrepublicain) pic.twitter.com/pJCXqXQOrx— Baptiste Cordier (@baptistecordier) April 13, 2015

The councillors had prepared the poster plan over the past month, with Saturday morning “meetings” at the studio of photographer Adrien Vuittenez in nearby Pontarlier. Not even their partners knew what they were planning.

Last month the mayor of Bretenière, south of Dijon in Côte-d'Or, astonished residents and drivers in a different way: by putting up road signs telling drivers “There are still children to crush - you can speed up.”
Photo: Tweet of Est Républicain page by Baptiste Cordier