I am a seasonal visitor, coming to the Vineyard usually in the summer months and staying for a period of two to six weeks. I have been coming to the Vineyard for a number of years. My significant other owned a cottage in the Camp Ground in Oak Bluffs for many years but has recently sold and now we find rental cottages or other accommodations every year.

One thing that has always bothered me about Vineyard Haven is the five-way intersection at Beach Road called Five Corners. A similar situation exists at the three-way intersection at State Road and Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road.

When I arrived on Sunday, August 26 and got off the ferry at Vineyard Haven, traffic was being directed by uniformed persons that may have been police and may have been ferry personnel. At any rate, traffic was being directed until it got to the Five Corners intersection. There as usual, there was no official presence, no traffic direction and as you are certainly aware, no traffic light.

I was riding a motorcycle, thus being less visible and more vulnerable than a car or truck, but managed after a couple of starts to get through the maelstrom of vehicles moving in five directions and onto the road toward Oak Bluffs. I have witnessed more than once traffic from Beach Road not even slowing down when coming through the intersection, a number of near misses and many frazzled nerves while attempting to navigate this spot. What might be the harm in a street light? What might be the harm of a uniformed police officer directing traffic in the season? The cost of a light could not be more than $30,000 and could be turned off in the off season. The cost of an officer in uniform could not be even close to that amount.

You guys need to assess the considerable risk of Five Corners and do something about an accident waiting to happen.

Michael McEowen

Riverhead, N.Y.