Residents of New Scotland know that driving in the vicinity of Meads Corners is unsafe. We’ve been saddened over decades of reporting on accidents there. There are three dangerous spots on Route 32, which is known as Indian Fields Road. One is where it crosses Route 301, known as Cedar Grove Road. The other is just past Meads Corners, toward Feura Bush, where there is a blind S curve. And a third is just before the curve where LaGrange Lane, a town road, with no warning signs, meets Route 32.

“It’s a death trap,” David Ralinsky Jr. told the New Scotland Town Board a year ago about the intersection. Ralinsky has a farm nearby and says his wife, in 2013, was hit by a car that ran the stop sign at Meads Corners. She was pregnant at the time and had their 18-month-old child as a passenger in the car.

“It’s just been getting worse and worse,” Ralinski said of the intersection at the time.

With at least four farms in the area, Meads Corners has a fair share of agricultural traffic, too. Ralinsky described a possible scenario where a tractor, weighing up to 15,000 pounds, is crossing the intersection, and someone runs a stop sign, or is speeding, and doesn’t see it in time. We wince to imagine the news story we’d write if that crash occurred.

Ralinsky asked the town to write a letter to the state’s Department of Transportation, urging the state agency to take action on the dangerous intersection.

Three months later, the town sent a three-paragraph letter to Mark Kennedy, the DOT’s regional transportation system operations engineer for the Capital Region. The town also sent Kennedy copies of pages from the DOT’s 2000 design study, showing a proposed flashing signal at the intersection.

Nineteen days after the letter was sent, two cars crashed into each other at Meads Corners. All four occupants were taken to Albany Medical Center. When we wrote about that July 27, 2014 crash, we cited the 2000 study, which said, “The Regional Traffic Engineering & Safety Group has recommended improved traffic control devises at the Route 32/CR 301 intersection” and “the existing highway alignment is a major contributor to accidents.”

Despite its recognition of a clear need for improvements at the intersection, the DOT did not move ahead with the project, citing lack of funding.

At that time, Bryan Viggiani, a spokesman for the DOT, told us, “Funding decisions aren’t made in a vacuum. It’s a collaborative decision-making process” among multiple agencies.

We would like these agencies to take heed.  According to accident data collected by the DOT, between Jan. 1, 2010 and Feb. 28, 2014, four accidents occurred at the intersection of Cedar Grove Road/Tarrytown Road and Indian Fields Road. All four accidents occurred on dry roads in daylight, and all four led to injury. Going further back in time, the DOT design study of 2000, notes 22 accidents at the intersection of Route 32 and LaGrange Lane from 1987 to 1996. Five accidents occurred between May 1995 and 1996, “indicating an increasing trend of this type of accident as more motorists use LaGrange Lane as a cut-off to state Route 443, Delaware Avenue, to Delmar and Albany.”

Jeff Mudge, who has been with the Onesquethaw Volunteer Fire Department for nearly 40 years, told us Meads Corners is “absolutely” dangerous. “There’s been a lot over the years,” he said of accidents there.

Now, there’s been yet another accident on Route 32. On April 17, a 19-year-old driver and her 17-year-old brother were sent to the hospital after her car went off the road on the S curve and crashed into the woods. The car was a crumpled wreck.

Most of the media coverage focused on the allegation that the driver was distracted by using an electronic device. The April 17 accident occurred just after State Troopers had a weeklong crackdown on distracted driving, ticketing drivers who used electronic devices behind the wheel. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 10 percent of all fatal accidents in 2013 involved a driver identified as distracted at the time of the crash.

We’ve used this space in the past to warn against the dangers of distracted driving — whether it’s using a cell phone or eating lunch or applying makeup, driver’s attention should be on the road. Period.

Individuals have to take responsibility for driving safely, for their own sakes as well as for the safety of fellow travelers. But our governments — state and local — must take responsibility for making our roads safe.

The town of New Scotland has been corresponding with the state DOT since the study was done in 2000 — that’s 15 years — and sent the department another letter at the beginning of last July.

Viggiani, the DOT spokesman, told us then, “We’ve gotten the supervisor’s letter and are going to take a hard look at the safety of that intersection.”

This past week, after the most recent accident, Viggiani told our New Scotland reporter, Jo E. Prout, “NYSDOT will re-evaluate the stretch of Route 32...including the curve on Route 32 near LaGrange Lane, to determine if additional traffic safety measures are warranted.”

He noted larger stop signs and a warning sign had been installed at Meads Corners last fall and said his department is “in the process of evaluating the need for a three-color or flashing signal at this intersection.”

It appears the road-straightening near LaGrange Lane recommended in the 2010 report is out of the question for the DOT’s budget as Viggiani states, “New York State’s highway infrastructure is aging and our needs exceed available funding.”

These sentiments were expressed, too, by New Scotland town Councilman Douglas LaGrange, who lives on the lane named for his family. He said the DOT must address other high-priority projects like bridge and road repairs with “astronomical” prices.

What is the worth of a human life? Do we have to wait until someone dies on that stretch of Route 32 before the road is made safe? Isn’t the suffering from accidents that lead to hospitalizations enough?

Perhaps the straightforward advice from Ralinsky, the farmer who came to the town board a year ago, would be a cost-effective improvement. While he acknowledged the alignment of the road was an issue, he said a less expensive solution would help. “Don’t rip the road up,” said Ralinsky. “Just drop the speed limit.”

Last week, the town’s highway superintendent, Kenneth Guyer, agreed. Speaking of the causes of accidents at the intersection, he said, “I don’t think it’s the visibility. I think it’s the speed” posted for the “twisting” road.

We urge elected New Scotland officials to stay on the case. Guyer told us that LaGrange Lane is the most heavily traveled town road. “Eighty-percent or better are out-of-towners,” he said. They may not know the accident history of the area that locals are aware of. And locals are worried about getting hurt.

Guyer posits that turning the LaGrange intersection from a Y to a T intersection would improve safety. Viggiani told us that, because LaGrange Lane, a town road, intersects with Route 32, a state road, the DOT would, if the town so requested, “assess LaGrange Lane and offer any appropriate suggestions for enhancing safety on it.”

Town officials should take the DOT up on this offer. We believe signs on LaGrange Lane are warranted. Further, they should continue to advocate for the DOT to make the needed changes to the state’s Route 32. The speed limit should be reduced.

“We are hoping the DOT will finally take some action,” the town supervisor told us last week.

Hope is not enough. After 15 years, it is time to insist.

— Melissa Hale-Spencer