Slippery road sign

A triangle showing a car with skid marks behind it.

Also known as: Skid risk sign, Slippery surface warning

Road & transportStandard profile

Meanings

A slippery road sign shows a car above two curving skid trails. The pictogram is one of the few in the Vienna set that depicts a consequence rather than a cause, showing what happens rather than what is there.

Officially standardisedVerified fact
Warns of a road surface likely to be slippery, drawn as a vehicle above two curving skid trails.
Contexts: Road signage
Officially standardisedVerified fact
Depicts the consequence rather than the hazard, unlike most Vienna pictograms which show the thing to be avoided.
Contexts: Road signage

Visual description

A triangle with a red border containing a small car shape above two curved trails swerving beneath it.

Symmetry: vertical
Orientation: upright
Colours: red, white

Confidence

IdentityHigh confidence: High confidence because the identity is documented in encyclopedic references, but multiple independent sources agree.
Historical originModerate confidence: Moderate confidence because the historical origin is documented in encyclopedic references, but multiple independent sources agree, but early or supporting evidence is limited, but the regional or cultural match to this specific claim is not precise.
Current useHigh confidence: High confidence because the current use is documented in encyclopedic references, but multiple independent sources agree.
Visual matchHigh confidence: High confidence because the visual match is documented in encyclopedic references, but multiple independent sources agree.

Sources

Convention on Road Signs and Signals (Vienna, 8 November 1968), consolidated text
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe · retrieved 2026-07-31
A treaty binding only on its contracting parties. It prescribes sign categories, shapes and colours and permits national variants within them; it does not describe the signage of non-signatory states, notably the United States. Cited for category and design prescription, never for the traffic law of a particular country.
Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals
Wikipedia · retrieved 2026-07-31
Tertiary reference. Used for what a sign depicts, which countries use which variant, and the broad regulatory lineage — not for an article number of the treaty or for the law of any single jurisdiction.
Comparison of European road signs
Wikipedia · retrieved 2026-08-23
Tertiary reference, cited for the conventional description of a mark, its usual name and where it is encountered. Where an issuing body defines the mark, that body is cited alongside and governs.
Traffic Signs Manual
Department for Transport (United Kingdom) · retrieved 2026-08-23
The British traffic sign manual, published openly. Britain signed the Vienna Convention but implements several signs differently, which the records name where relevant.

Last reviewed 2026-08-23

Part of

Road signs across national systems

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Meanings

Officially standardisedVerified fact

Warns of a road surface likely to be slippery, drawn as a vehicle above two curving skid trails.

Contexts: Road signage

Officially standardisedVerified fact

Depicts the consequence rather than the hazard, unlike most Vienna pictograms which show the thing to be avoided.

Contexts: Road signage

Confidence

IdentityHigh confidence: High confidence because the identity is documented in encyclopedic references, but multiple independent sources agree.
Historical originModerate confidence: Moderate confidence because the historical origin is documented in encyclopedic references, but multiple independent sources agree, but early or supporting evidence is limited, but the regional or cultural match to this specific claim is not precise.
Current useHigh confidence: High confidence because the current use is documented in encyclopedic references, but multiple independent sources agree.
Visual matchHigh confidence: High confidence because the visual match is documented in encyclopedic references, but multiple independent sources agree.

Sources

Convention on Road Signs and Signals (Vienna, 8 November 1968), consolidated text
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe · retrieved 2026-07-31
A treaty binding only on its contracting parties. It prescribes sign categories, shapes and colours and permits national variants within them; it does not describe the signage of non-signatory states, notably the United States. Cited for category and design prescription, never for the traffic law of a particular country.
Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals
Wikipedia · retrieved 2026-07-31
Tertiary reference. Used for what a sign depicts, which countries use which variant, and the broad regulatory lineage — not for an article number of the treaty or for the law of any single jurisdiction.
Comparison of European road signs
Wikipedia · retrieved 2026-08-23
Tertiary reference, cited for the conventional description of a mark, its usual name and where it is encountered. Where an issuing body defines the mark, that body is cited alongside and governs.
Traffic Signs Manual
Department for Transport (United Kingdom) · retrieved 2026-08-23
The British traffic sign manual, published openly. Britain signed the Vienna Convention but implements several signs differently, which the records name where relevant.

Last reviewed 2026-08-23