When most see a stop sign, they tend to follow traffic rules to prevent any accidents from occurring. That isn’t the case for a traffic pole in a Walmart parking lot in Auburn, Maine, where people keep hitting it with their cars.
Apparently, said pole has caused many an accident in its day, so many that it’s become famous. The stop sign has transformed into an urban legend in Maine having been hit more than 100 times. It’s even gotten a shout-out in one woman’s obituary.
The local police chief, Jason Moen, said there were at least 130 calls to the police for crashes at the sign since 2020. Considering that’s only three years ago, that’s a pretty impressive feat.
Although the bright yellow pole with a well-lit stop sign is highly visible, people can’t help the urge but to slam their cars right into it. The phenomenon has gotten so chaotic that it needed to be painted special colors, banked with concrete barriers and lights attached to draw more attention to it. Yet, it still gets run into.
People have even started taking selfies with the crash-creating traffic pole. And don’t worry, there’s a Facebook group called “The Auburn Walmart Pole Strikes Again” that has 7,500 members for anyone looking to show off those pics.