Milan police is being forced to remove an underwear billboard because it has proven to be too distracting for drivers.
The advertisements featuring Argentinian-born model and presenter Belén Rodríguez will be taken down after residents complained that they were jeopardizing road safety in central Milan.
One of the billboards show the 30-year-old seemingly removing her underwear and another sees posing seductively on a bed.
Shortly after the billboards advertising an Italian underwear brand went up, residents began complaining that they were 'a serious danger for vehicular circulation'.
A local residents committee referred the road safety complaints to police and authorities are now set to tear down both the billboards.
Ms Rodriguez herself said the campaign was 'sensual, but elegant', and denied that the images, which are several storeys high, would cause crashes, The Times reports.
This is not the first time an underwear billboard has been cause for concern for road safety.
The iconic Wonderbra 'Hello Boys' billboard advertising campaign featuring Eva Herzigova was blamed for a slew of traffic accidents when it premiered in 1994.
A 1993 H&M campaign featuring the late Anna NIcole Smith proved so distracting to drivers in Norway that it had to be banned.
A 2013 study by researchers at the University of Alberta found that risque billboards really can cause traffic accidents as drivers dramatically alter their speed depending on the kind of billboard they are passing.
The say even the wording of giant roadside advertisments can have a dramatic effect on driver's speed. 'Driver distraction is estimated to be one of the leading causes of motor vehicle accidents,' the team say.
'However, little is known about the role of emotional distraction on driving, despite evidence that attention is highly biased toward emotion.'
In a driving simulation study carried out on University of Alberta students, researchers Michelle Chan and Anthony Singhal found that drivers passing signs with negative words such as abuse, stress, prison or war, tended afterward to slow down and drift from their lane.
Drivers passing signs with positive words like cash, fame, sex and win did the opposite, speeding up on the simulated road.
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