There are a number of things that irks me. Superstition is one of them. Now that there’s a second accident at the Rochor Road – Victoria Street junction, It disturbs me that some people are now saying that the junction is haunted. They argued that the reason why there are so many accidents is because an evil dead spirit (or spirits) is looking for a substitute. Frankly I wished I had a time machine to send some of these clowns back to the Dark Ages. Whatever happened to investigative, scientific thinking?

Let me put it straight – that junction is not haunted! The beauty of technology is that at times it even saves me the trip of going down to the place to take a look to back up my own views on why the things that has happened at that junction is about as natural as taking a shit in the morning.

Here are some pictures obtained on Street View on Google Earth. These pictures are dated March 2009. Notice the overhead traffic light facing Victoria Street towards Kallang at the junction. I have made the effort to identify them for those with the reverse of hawkeye. Before anyone scream about these pictures being outdated, just take a look at them first as I am not done making my point.

Now on to the point I am trying to make. Take a look at this recent picture which Michael Cheng gave me permission to use.

The overhead traffic light facing Victoria Street towards Kallang is gone. It has been removed. I recalled some comments about this junction being accident prone, and the newspapers even reported that they caught several people beating the light at that area when their reporters stationed there one of the nights. However, the newspapers failed to tell us whether the accidents were a really recent occurrence or something that has been ongoing for years.

Personally, I think it is a fairly recent occurrence. This junction has existed for years but it was only recently modified for the construction of the Downtown Line (if not also the Bugis Station for that line). Did the problems only start after this modification?

Now consider this. When a driver cruises down Victoria Street at night, there is enough distance between the Victoria Street – Middle Road junction until the pedestrian crossing at Bugis Village to pick up speed. If both the traffic signals are synchornised and “red”, the driver would have slowed down as he approaches. However, if the traffic signal at the pedestrian crossing (just a mere 50 meters or more before the junction) has been green when the driver drove past the Victoria Street – Middle Road junction, and there isn’t another overhead traffic light at the Rochor Road – Victoria Street junction, the driver may be misled into believing that all traffic signals are in his favor and thus step on the gas towards the Ophir Road – Victoria Street junction. There simply isn’t enough reaction time for him to react when he realised that his perception was in error after that.

If this is the case, all the accidents that has happened at this junction is hardly supernatural but rather a situation that is caused by an oversight of the Land Transport Authority [LTA]. While the LTA can argue that a driver should slow down when he approaches a traffic light (even when it is in his favor), it cannot absolve itself from the responsibility of ensuring that drivers are not misled by traffic signals into making decisions that could cause harm not only to themselves but also other road users. LTA should explain why the overhead traffic light at this junction was removed in the first place and whether its removal is the cause of these horrifying and even fatal traffic accidents.

In my opinion, on top of restoring the overhead traffic light at the Rochor Road – Victoria Street junction, the LTA can consider turning off just after midnight the traffic lights at the pedestrian crossing just 50meters before the junction since there will be few people using that junction after midnight. Even better, the LTA should just remove this pedestrian crossing permanently since it is a hazard to pedestrians anyway. Just do a search on Youtube for “Traffic Light Bugis Village” and take a look at the videos put up by concerned members of the public.

Next, relocate the bus stop further up to Illuma. Pedestrians can then use the overhead bridge between Bugis Junction and Illuma for crossing. Apart from the reasons mentioned above that would support the removal of this pedestrian crossing, its removal should also smoothen traffic and reduce congestion along that part of Victoria Street as well.

I sincerely hope the LTA will act promptly to do something about the traffic signals at the Rochor Road – Victoria Street junction, and also to evaluate the feasibility of removing the hazardous and problematic pedestrian crossing between Bugis Village and Bugis Junction and to move the bus stop further up the road. That should put an end to all that mentally unhealthy, superstitious views that are now making their rounds on the Internet.

Update:
From TODAYonline: “After two accidents occurred at the same spot in as many weeks, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) yesterday said it would synchronise the timings of the traffic lights in the area. The traffic signals at the junction of Rochor Road and Victoria Street, and the pedestrian crossing linking Bugis Junction and Bugis Village will now turn green at about the same time.”

*sigh* Cosmetic changes. What about the “human jam” problem at the pedestrian crossing linking Bugis Junction and Bugis Village in the day and the traffic congestion it caused?