Things That Make You Say - What The.....?

Well as part of my travels, I often pass by the new Monroe Hospital on Highway 37 just south of town. I have been travelling this way since long before the hospital was a thought in the founders minds. The intersection of Fullerton Pike and Indiana 37 has always been a point of controversy. There have been accidents there often as far back as I can recall. When I was a teenager, I traversed the intersection every day on my way to school (after turning 16 and getting my drivers license) and saw my share of accidents at that intersection. At that time it was as it should have been, no stop lights on the highway, only stop signs for the cross traffic.
Some said it was a danger to people pulling out onto or crossing the highway. There were some fatalities and eventually it was decided (wrongly IMO) that a stop light was needed on the Highway. Now bear in mind that you could see on coming traffic 1/2 mile or so in both directions, so any accidents were (IMO) a product of impatient drivers 'forcing' their way across the highway. The stop light wasn't necessarily a bad thing, I could definitely agree that it made traffic crossings easier and maybe even safer by building stop lights at that intersection. HOWEVER, the idiots responsible for the decision didn't bother to add turn lights on and off of the highway. This did absolutely NOTHING for safety at that intersection. If anything it gives a false sense of safety because crossing traffic now 'assumes' that highway traffic will be stopping for the Red Light when in fact often times it results in those drivers impatiently speeding up to run through the red light or even worse the lack of a turn light for the highway traffic results in the same impatient drivers continuing to force their way across the on coming traffic resulting in more accidents.
This all being said, the addition of the Hospital at this intersection demands the highway to have a stop light and now it is very necessary for traffic to be controlled at that crossing. However since the ignorance of the planners still hasn't allowed them to add the necessary turn lights, accidents are only going to increase at tragic increments. On my way through the other day, I came upon the aftermath of one of these accidents. There was no report that I saw in the newspaper, and I did not witness the crash just the scene afterwards so I don't now what happened for sure. Given the intersections history and the placement of the wreckage though, I would speculate someone was trying turn across the highway and managed a head on collision with a north bound traveller. Had the traffic planners had their heads outside their body cavities, they may have foreseen this and added the necessary turn lights for the intersection.
Now that the hospital has opened, traffic has increased significantly. This ignorant stop light configuration is causing more problems than it solved. What needs to happen, and happen immediately is the installation of the much needed turn arrows. If we are going to have a stop light at this intersection (which now I firmly believe is a necessity) we MUST get the proper turn lights installed to allow safe crossings of the north and south bound lanes. It always fails to amaze me at the serious lack of foresight that the planners of Bloomington and Monroe County have in regards to domestic growth and expansion. We only can hope that the madness ends soon and someone realizes that things are not being done as they should be. If not, I fear there are going to be some tragic consequences.