Did Michael Vo pre-sell his vote on a digital billboard to Clear Channel?

We already busted Fountain Valley Mayor Michael Vo for refusing to allow competitive bidding for Fountain Valley’s waste hauling.  He took a campaign contribution from Rainbow Waste – which got what they paid for as the trash contract in Fountain Valley continues to be evergreen – and the result is one of the highest monthly trash pick-up rates in Orange County, as we posted here.

Now we have discovered that Vo is at it again. This time he accepted a campaign contribution from Clear Channel, an advertising company that wants to place a new digital billboard by the Fountain Valley Water Tank, located at Euclid – with visibility from the 405 Freeway.

As I understand it this sign is supposed to convey a mix of advertising and civic communications – which means that if Vo is re-elected on Nov. 4, and the sign is approved by both the Fountain Valley Planning Commission and the City Council, you just might see it used to promote Vo himself.

But hold the presses, a study, conducted by Swedish and German researchers found that drivers looked at the colorful, rapidly changing digital billboards significantly longer than they do at other signs on the same stretch of road. The digital versions often took a driver’s eyes off the road for more than two seconds, according to The State.

Those two seconds of driver distraction are a major problem, according to a well-regarded Virginia Tech study published in 2006 that found anything that takes a driver’s eyes off the road for longer than two seconds increases risks of a crash. The study went on to show that nearly 80 percent of all crashes involve driver inattention within three seconds of the crash.

Vo already got paid off by Clear Channel – and we truly doubt he bothered to look into the safety issues caused by the proposed Fountain Valley digital billboard – which may end up causing terrible car accidents on the 405 Freeway.

The trash issue alone is reason enough NOT to vote for Vo on Nov. 4.  Now Fountain Valley voters have yet another very good reason to reject Vo!