Elf & Safety Mate

I saw this picture on the Rail magazine blog:

Says it all really doesn't it! The only thing is, I think they forgot some more warnings: "Warning: do not bang your head on the floor"; "Warning: Do not fall off of the platform"; "Warning, the light fitting might fall on you if the bolts have got too rusty"; "Warning: Not all of the steps are painted yellow"; "Warning: You are only protected from rain along the top of the footbridge".
The sad thing is we have become a country not only averse to risk (or rather averse to having to pay compensation) but we have no idea where to draw the line. This sign for instance does not absolve Network Rail of any legal obligations to maintain the stairs, it just adds another obstruction and cost to something which is already expensive.
A bit like traffic lights really. Traffic lights say that "you are not qualified or able to decide when to cross a junction", "you should not have to wait longer than 10 seconds to pull into traffic so we'll put in lights that'll make you wait a minute instead" and "traffic lights are an inexact science so you'll just have to put up with it". If we were allowed to drive through on red when the road was clear, it wouldn't be so bad but the traffic police will have you if you do anything as outrageous as going through red 0.5 seconds after it turns red from amber.
Great times!