Cliche (Found in my Drafts file from 2015.)

   An accident waiting to happen is a cliche to be sure, but one that  often turns out to be all too true.
   Recently as I drove into the Village of Valley Falls along State Route 67, I saw a child standing along the side of the road.  He had retrieved his mail from the mailbox located across the road from his home.  He was wary, old enough to know how to cross the road, but he had to wait, in the precariously narrow space between the metal guardrails and the edge of the busy highway, just inches away from the oncoming traffic.
   His is not an isolated instance.  There are 10* homes along that less than one-quarter mile stretch of Route 67, and all those who have mailboxes cross the road to get their mail.  (##Count the mailboxes.)Standing along the highway is risky enough in any kind of weather. When snow accumulates alongside the guardrails or the road becomes icy and slippery, the situation becomes even more treacherous.
   I understand that the postal service has  a fixed route, but though inconvenient and even costly, change has not been unprecedented.  A number of years ago, there was no Village mail delivery to homes within a certain distance from the Post Office.  That has been changed to where there are **mailboxes on State Street alone, with delivery on both sides of the street, and numerous other home mail delivery to the other streets in the village, also on both sides of the street.  Those  who choose to have their mail delivered to a mailbox have  to walk no further than the end of their lawn.
    A number of families in the village, including some on Route 67,  have daily newspapers delivered to their homes.  All the newspaper boxes are on the same side of the street as the houses, usually by the driveways. Not a single one is located across the road.
    If you follow Route 67 over the Valley Falls Bridge, there are * mailboxes on the opposite side of the State Route, located on the same side as the homes.
    It is possible that the families who must cross the busy road to get their mail are content with their lot, and have not requested that their mailboxes be located in front of their homes.  But since the situation seems so precarious, especially when children and the elderly are often the persons designated to retrieve the mail, it would seem a matter of public safety to rectify it by placing the mailboxes on the same side of the road as the houses.
    A new law, and a good one, requires that motorists provide space for police officers who are in the highway.  Shouldn't the same principle of safety apply to civilians as well?