To the Editor:

Almost every day I have to hold my breath and pray before proceeding onto or crossing Route 34 from Bennetts Bridge Road. It took more than a decade of complaints (and scores of accidents) to get to the point where the State DOT has now finally approved the authorization of a plan to put a traffic light at this exceptionally treacherous intersection. I guess that's progress.

Now that they have acknowledged that "a signal is warranted there," we learn that the installation will be on a time frame to start in five years ... and these time frames are often delayed. It is my understanding that the ineffective yellow blinking light that currently exists there was installed many years ago in response to the fatalities of two sisters. Given that there have been 19 reported accidents at this intersection in the past three years alone, we can extrapolate that there is the likelihood to be more than 30 additional accidents at that intersection before the situation is addressed.

I understand the need for timelines, but life and death situations need to be addressed immediately. This is one of them.

Evan Pitkoff

7 Beckett Village, Sandy Hook         October 7, 2016