(LEX 18) — Friday’s hurricane-force winds damaged homes, toppled trees and blew down or damaged tall, heavy signs.
One business sign in Bowling Green collapsed and crushed a car, but no one was inside.
With the magnitude of the winds on Friday, damage was widespread and possibly unavoidable. But the fallen signs from this storm and an incident last month where a woman died in Elizabethtown after a Denny’s sign collapsed on the car she was in made LEX 18 Investigates want to know more about who keeps an eye on sign safety in Kentucky.
At the state level, there don’t appear to be any regulations requiring regular safety inspections of large signs. Kentucky leaves that up to local governments.
In Lexington, there’s an ordinance that says signs shall be “maintained in good condition at all times.” It also says that the Division of Building Inspection has the authority to order the repair or removal of signs that could be a hazard to health, safety or public welfare.
LEX 18’s Leigh Searcy caught up with Mayor Linda Gorton to ask her about how often signs are inspected. She didn’t know off-hand, but spokeswoman Susan Straub was able to confirm later that the city does not do regular inspections of signs.
The city can order repairs or removal of a sign if a complaint is made about disrepair, or a sign appears to be hazardous, Straub said.
“This was extraordinary wind, but it is an important question,” Gorton said of sign safety and inspections. “We have to pursue all of these answers.”
