Pranks involving zombie warning signs spread to Illinois

COLLINSVILLE, Ill. -- Electronic message boards meant to warn motorists of possible trouble on the road increasingly are being taken over by pranksters putting drivers on notice about everything from zombies to raptors. Highway safety officials aren't amused.

The latest breach came during Tuesday morning's rush hour, when hackers changed a sign along southbound Interstate 255 near St. Louis to read, "DAILY LANE CLOSURES DUE TO ZOMBIES."

On Monday in Indiana's Hamilton County, the electronic message on a sign in Carmel's construction zone warned drivers of "RAPTORS AHEAD -- CAUTION." Just days earlier, "ZOMBIES IN AREA! RUN" flashed on signs at an Austin, Texas, intersection.

Illinois Department of Transportation supervisory field engineer Joe Gasaway worries that such shenanigans, while raising eyebrows and prompting chuckles among some motorists, may dangerously distract drivers from heeding legitimate hazards down the road.

Tuesday's real warning near here was meant to ensure safety of crews replacing guardrails.

"We understood it was a hoax, but at the same time those boards are there for a reason," Gasaway said of the zombie warning. "We don't want (drivers) being distracted by a funny sign."

How exactly pranksters did it remains unclear. Austin Public Works spokeswoman Sara Hartley suspected the hackers there cut a padlock to get into the signs' computers.

But some Web sites encourage the mischief, in some cases publishing a step-by-step lesson titled "How to Hack an Electronic Road Sign."

Such instructions appear on Jalopnik.com. It's an auto blog whose editor-in-chief, Ray Wert, considers the postings borrowed from another website as a benevolent bid to encourage traffic-safety officials to take securing the signs more seriously.

Wert's site features a "Hacked Electronic Road Sign Mega-Gallery" of doctored signs, noting in a caption that "since we first showed you the `How To Hack An Electronic Road Sign' guide, the proliferation of hacked signs has become so widespread we had to compile a gallery of all 18 of them."

Jalopnik also urges its guests not to hack into electronic road signs using the information on the website, which Wert said has a viewership of 2.6 million a month.

"Hacking generally is about showing where there are holes in security systems, and I think this is a great example of that," Wert told The Associated Press by telephone Wednesday. "I'm sure there are all sorts of ways to use that information in a way that's inappropriate, but we're trying to make clear this is an issue that needs to be confronted by traffic safety and transportation officials."

And while he "wholeheartedly" shares Gasaway's concern that pranked signs could dangerously distract motorists, Wert says he has no immediate plans to rid Jalopnik of the how-to guide.

In Illinois, messing with an official traffic control device is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a $250 fine -- half what a culprit might have to pay in Texas if caught. In Indiana, such mischief would be a misdemeanor that carries up to a year in jail and $5,000 in fines.