MOST DRIVERS on busy highways probably wince when they see preparations under way to install traffic signals at intersections, yet all to often they aren’t installed until people are killed or badly injured.

Currently, lights are being installed on Highway 10 at Old School Road, where the need for them was fairly obvious last year when traffic was diverting off Highway 10 en route to Highway 410 because it allowed you to avoid half a dozen signalized intersections in Snelgrove.

But the need for those lights diminished sharply last fall once 410 and 10 were linked, with far fewer vehicles now making the left turn from the highway to Old School Road.

Interestingly, the same phenomenon has led Peel Region to erect signs on Heart Lake Road advising motorists that the signals at Charleston Sideroad (Peel Road 24) may be removed as no longer necessary. That’s also because most of the commuting traffic that used Heart Lake to avoid the gridlock in Caledon Village is now back on the widened Highway 10.

Meanwhile, several area intersections desperately in need of lights still don’t have them, seemingly because not enough users have been killed despite the dangerousness.

They include the long-promised lights at Highway 10 and Cedar Grove Road north of Orangeville and the equally needed lights for Highway 9 at Mono’s First Line EHS and Caledon’s Kennedy Road and Gore Road.

As well, in the interests of improved safety, four-way stops are badly needed at 5, 10 and 20 Sideroads now that the Mono- Amaranth Townline is fully paved.

We wonder, does anyone really care about highway safety?