Fox News Flash top headlines for November 17
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Federal highway officials were not pleased with New Jersey's funny digital messages and road warnings and ordered the state to take them down.
The Federal Highway Administration reportedly told the New Jersey Department of Transportation to kill the messages, some of which read "Get your head out of your apps" and "Hocus Pocus Drive with Focus."
"Slow down. This ain’t Thunder Road," read a sign for fans of New Jersey son Bruce Springsteen’s popular song as well as "We'll Be Blunt Don't Drive High."
The New Jersey DOT declined to comment on the matter. Fox News Digital has reached out to the FHWA.
A sign reading "Hocus pocus drive with focus" on a New Jersey roadway. The state has been reportedly forced to take similar messages down on order of federal highway officials. (NJDOT)
The tongue-in-cheek messages had been in play for about a month before they were ordered taken down from the transportation agency's 215 permanent signs throughout the state.
NJDOT Commissioner Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti said Tuesday, before the ban, the signs were an effort to "to get the attention of folks on the road with messages that are quintessential New Jersey — kind of in-your-face," The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
"We’re meeting drivers where they are, and these messages have caught on in a big way."
"The two biggest messages we want to get across are to slow down, and to obey the state’s Move Over Law… These messages are just one of many ways we’re trying to make our roads safer," she added.
The signs were so popular, NJ DOT had to warn motorists to not take photos of them while driving.
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"We’re glad you’re enjoying the new safety messages, but please don’t take pictures of the VMS board while driving!" the agency tweeted on Oct. 17. "It is very dangerous and defeats the message we’re trying to drive home."
