WHATEVER THE OUTCOME of the police investigation into the Amaranth collision that took two lives last Friday, it's time for local municipalities to take a serious look at how their intersections are controlled.

We would not presume to second-guess how or why the fatal mid-morning collision happened. But we do feel a comment is warranted on the nature of that intersection and some others, albeit in the most general of terms.

According to police, an eastbound truck ran a yield sign at the Sixth Line and 25 Sideroad of Amaranth and struck a southbound pickup truck broadside, killing two of its three occupants.

As is the case with many other rural intersections, visibility is somewhat restricted, in this case for both southbound and eastbound traffic.

Those facts do not excuse a driver whose vehicle isn't sufficiently under control to be brought to a halt to avoid a collision at a 'yield' intersection. But they do suggest that mere yield signs are inadequate safety controls at such intersections.

As we see it, traffic in Dufferin has reached the point where all intersections should have stop signs for the less-travelled roadways and fourway stops where traffic volumes merit or visibility is limited.

It's ironic that Orangeville and Shelburne have three- or four-way 'political' stops in residential areas that have little traffic, yet there are no such controls at busy Orangeville-area junctions such as at Veterans Way and Five Sideroad or Townline and Peel Road 136.

It is unacceptable that two lives have been lost at an intersection that should have been better protected - whether or not a driver is found to have disobeyed a yield sign.