Editorial: Canal safety

Shawn Teeters of Golden Gate Estates is an expert on road transportation safety. No, he doesn’t have a college degree or fancy certificates for attending seminars. He has rescued a woman from a sinking van.

Teeters knows what should be done. “We spend all this money on palm trees to make our medians look pretty, and that’s nice,” he says. “It’s not like it would cost a ton of money to put up an extra stop sign or some trees out there — something to block the view of the other side so drivers don’t think they are going down the same road” in the dark and into the water.

Thank goodness the Collier County Transportation Department has taken his advice rather than circle-talk about meeting federal safety guidelines. The county has erected signs, barricades and pavement stripes that nobody will miss — even in the dark.

Lee County, with streets and canals of its own, can go to school on Collier’s experience. The lesson is that when pro- active planning fails, quick problem-fixing is in order.