The junction between Elm Street and Beech Street was an accident black spot. It was easy to assume that no one would be coming the other way, and if a driver was not attentive enough he could easily come to grief. People attributed this to the fact that children would often assemble at the junction, making it hard for drivers to assess the traffic situation. Local residents would often assert that the only way to make the junction safe would be to augment the poorly lit stop signs with a set of lights, or at the very least, to assign a lollipop person to the junction at the items when children were going to and from school.
The local police were sympathetic to these requests, but to no avail. They claimed they lacked the authority to install a set of lights. Things had been tight since the previous year’s local government audit, and funds were unlikely to be forthcoming. However, they would, when asked, frequently assure the questioner that they hoped the government would soon augment their budget and allow them increased autonomy in making financial decisions, in which case dealing with the Elm Street junction would be a top priority. Many people pointed out that simply to wait for the government to act was pointless, that maybe a set of traffic lights could be purchased cheaply in an auction, or that a lollipop person, besides making the junction safer for the children, would cheer the place up and be an authentic asset to the community. But it seemed that for ordinary people to suggest improvements to their own community merely served to astonish the police.
The matter was settled in a rather unlikely fashion. At the beginning of March a collision occurred between the Chief of Police and the auxiliary fire service chief who was speeding to attend a fire. The Chief of Police saw the accident coming and sounded his horn go give aural warning of his approach, but the auxiliary fire service chief was already attempting to avoid a small boy and was unable to assimilate the warning signals in time. The auxiliary fire service chief and his associate, who was in the back seat, were unhurt. The Chief of Police, however, was slightly concussed. He got out of his vehicle and staggered around with a slightly bemused expression on his face, as though he was about to attain nirvana, after which he spent twenty minutes trying to attach a parking ticket to the hole where the fireman’s windscreen had been.