Motorcyclist Loses Leg After Crashing into Illegal Billboard Near Kladno

On Saturday, August 8, a serious accident occurred on the road between Smečno and Kačice: a 26-year-old car driver failed to give way to a 24-year-old motorcyclist while pulling out onto the main road. According to preliminary police findings, the collision itself was not the only cause of the motorcyclist's severe injuries — he also struck a black advertising billboard that had stood by the roadside for years without the required permit.

Barbora Pleskačová, an equestrian coach who witnessed the accident, said she heard a loud crash and ran outside. "It was clear the motorcyclist had literally torn through the billboard, riding straight through it. The structure was broken and bent," she recalled. She added that the injured man's leg had been very badly hurt.

According to sources in the motorcycling community and medical staff, the leg was later amputated. The press office of the Central Military Hospital, where the injured man was airlifted by helicopter, declined to confirm or deny the hospitalization, citing patient confidentiality. The Slaný municipal office, which has jurisdiction over that stretch of road, confirmed that the advertising structure had no valid permit whatsoever.

The billboard vanished days later

Just a few days after the crash, the damaged billboard disappeared without a trace — someone cut down the metal structure and hauled it away. The Central Bohemian Region's Road Authority, which is responsible for road maintenance and for removing illegal advertising, says it had nothing to do with the removal, even though it had indeed been planning to take the structure down itself. According to the authority's spokeswoman, Petra Kučerová, the billboard was most likely removed by its owner before the planned intervention could take place.

Archival images from Google Street View and Mapy.com show that for several years the billboard in question displayed an advertisement for the Kladno car dealership V-group. Co-owner Martin Vlček did not deny that the ad belonged to his company but declined to comment on the circumstances of the accident or say whether police had contacted him.

The investigation into the crash is ongoing: Kladno forensic experts are awaiting the results of technical examinations to determine the exact cause and circumstances of the accident, said Michaela Richterová, spokeswoman for the Central Bohemian police.

A similar tragedy has happened before

This is not the first such tragic incident. In 2024, a motorcyclist died near Králíky in the Ústí nad Orlicí district after skidding off the road and, according to police, crashing into — among other things — the metal frame of an illegal billboard. The case was closed, and the billboard's owner was fined a mere 30,000 crowns by the local municipal authority — solely for the illegal placement of the structure, not for the man's death, since officials determined that the fatal injury was caused by impact with a tree.

Prague-based lawyer Adam Gromas, who has spent years fighting illegal roadside advertising, says the core problem is that road authorities remove only a few dozen such structures nationwide each year — a drop in the bucket. According to him, billboard owners and advertisers are indifferent to the risks posed by placing signs near roads, and some companies have built entire business models around illegal roadside advertising.

According to the activist group Přidej se a strhni to, as recently as May this year the Eurobillboard network — linked to the notorious "king" of illegal advertising, Anton Fischer — controlled 596 advertising surfaces on 319 structures across Czechia, despite the fact that Fischer himself has been under arrest in Croatia since last year on suspicion of murder. Gromas notes that removal is effectively the only real consequence such operators face, since authorities rarely pursue formal administrative proceedings, and even when fines are imposed, they are too small to make a dent in the business.

Source: seznamzpravy.cz