Lingerie sends panting drivers on road to ruin

IT SELLS stockings, but it has caused hold-ups – and worse.

Rubber-necking male motorists are being blamed for causing a spate of crashes and near misses outside a designer lingerie shop.

Staff at Agent Provocateur in Glasgow claim to have witnessed numerous bumps and accidents because of drivers craning their necks to look at their risqué window displays.

They even claim that on one occasion a leering double-decker bus driver reversed back outside the Merchant City shop to film scantily clad models on his camera phone.

Glasgow University academic Dr Brendan Wallace, who has carried out research for the Government that concluded that eye-catching adverts are a major cause of road accidents, believes the flamboyant underwear store is a classic example.

The chain, whose celebrity fans include Kylie Minogue, Kate Moss, Victoria Beckham and Christina Aguilera, prides itself on its jaw-dropping window displays.

In recent months the brightly lit Glasgow outlet has featured mannequins dressed as whip-wielding lion tamers and in apparently Sapphic embraces.

Wallace said the nature of the displays, coupled with the location – on a junction between Ingram Street and Miller Street – meant that motorists were taking their eyes off the road.

“There is a huge amount of scientific evidence that billboards and shop displays can distract drivers. This distracting influence is more pronounced at a junction or turn-off, and this appears to be a classic case,” he said.

“They get distracted and don’t pay attention to other things like pedestrians and other vehicles. Common sense alone suggests that a scantily clad model or mannequin in a lingerie shop is going to be far more distracting than a bookshop.”

Wallace’s research, commissioned by the then Scottish Executive, concluded that distractions caused by roadside adverts or displays were underreported as a cause of accidents, because drivers were embarrassed to admit their mistakes.

Road accident expert Andrew Fraser, who works for Stirling Council, shared Wallace’s concerns.

“The obvious intention here is to distract people and they can have serious consequences. What if the bus driver had reversed back into somebody?” he said.

“I am absolutely horrified by what has been happening in Glasgow city centre, particularly in and around George Square. The whole area seems to be completely covered in giant adverts, billboards and displays.

“Driving is a 95% visual task and we really shouldn’t be deliberately distracting people from that task.”

An online blog written by staff at the Agent Provocateur shop claims the raunchy tableaux have succeeding in literally stopping traffic.

“Crash, bang, wallop, thwack… These are just some of the sounds we have heard in the street outside the boutique,” it says.

“Buses, cars and taxis have been banging into objects and each other while craning their necks staring at our daring window displays. No more so than the day we had live lingerie models in the window, whipping the passers-by into a frenzy.

“We even witnessed a double-decker bus reverse in order for the driver to get some footage on his mobile… a poor pedestrian was almost trapped under the wheels by this desperate manoeuvre.”

Nearby office worker Jennifer Daniels has witnessed numerous near-misses at the shop, which opened last summer.

She said: “It is a standing joke in our office. You see guys doing double-takes as they drive past. Their tongues are almost hanging out.”

Last year Glasgow City Council banned a series of taxi adverts which were designed by the London-based lingerie chain featuring corsets, eye masks, riding crops and leather boots along with the slogan “Knickers to Glasgow!”.

Labour councillor John McKenzie felt he would have to cover the eyes of his “grandweans” if the ads were allowed.

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