Please, let there be lights

By Lia Bichel
HAYLEY Clifford has collected about 2500 signatures lobbying for traffic lights at the corner of a deadly intersection, and hopes her efforts will result in less accidents and more care on the roads.
Ms Clifford, 19, said news of five young adults’ recent deaths at the intersection of Ormond and Hallam Road was devastating.
They were killed in two separate accidents in June and July.
The Narre Warren South resident said she did not know any victims, but took action in the hope that no more fatalities occurred on the roads.
Ms Clifford took the petition to a nearby nightclub, frequented by friends of one of the victims.
She also doorknocked, took the petition to a Walk for Hallam Road on 1 August, and was supported by Emilio Barna and Zachary DeSilva, who shared her enthusiasm for safer roads.
The number of people who signed the petition was unimaginable, Ms Clifford said.
“I didn’t expect there to be so much support, I actually thought it might get the opposite effect because I didn’t know the victims,” she said. “I was just really pleased with how it turned out.”
Interim traffic lights were installed at the intersection before Ms Clifford’s petition was submitted to council, but she said she hoped the people who signed it also “got the message.”
“People assume it won’t happen to them, but it has made me realise it can happen to anybody, whether they are young or old,” she said.
“It’s opened my eyes.”