It's all Uber, Grab and taxi drivers can talk about: a recent spate of three horrific traffic accidents in one week that claimed the lives of five people.

Two accidents, in particular, took place over the span of four days in almost exactly the same fashion: a car was turning right at a junction and an oncoming vehicle slammed into it.

In both instances, the female passengers -- one 19, and the other 23 years old -- seated in the backseat, did not survive their injuries.

Online petition started

These two accidents, eerily similar and involving the loss of two young lives, has prompted someone to start a petition online:

According to the petition starter, who went by the moniker "Gen Y":

"Two accidents involving fatalities this week have prompted this petition. Roads have been widened significantly in recent years, with new lanes added and as such it is difficult to have field of vision of so many lanes, pedestrians, mobility devices, and fast moving oncoming cars all at once to make an informed and safe judgement.

Requesting LTA to determine if it is still safe to keep to discretionary turning on green given the growth in sizes of junctions (such as the Commonwealth Ave West/Clementi Road and Upper Bukit Timah/Jln Anak Bukit junctions) and to work on improving the safety of all road users.

Thank you"

What is the "discretionary turning on green" rule?

In essence, it is: when you are turning right at a four-way junction, and if the traffic light doesn't have multi-coloured arrow lights (just one green one), what you do is

• wait for traffic that is going straight from diagonally opposite you (because the green light as shown on the top right favours traffic going straight first) to clear, and then
• check that there are no pedestrians crossing the road on the other side as well before executing your turn.

This can be done before the green arrow lights up.

But once it does light up, it is your right of way to turn right.

Links to the petition, alongside a Straits Times forum letter (that has been marked as premium content), have been shared on Facebook and forums, triggering significant discussion among road users.

Some are strongly in favour

One cited safety concerns for pedestrians when drivers attempt to complete right turns without checking for them:

Another called for statistics from the authorities:

One complained that there are "too many areas to watch" for a driver who is turning right prior to the appearance of the green arrow, claiming that the junctions with red arrows show fewer accidents:

Two others also argued in favour of installing red, amber and green arrows at all four-way junctions:

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But of course, there were others who felt the system isn't the problem:

Like these guys, who believe it's a bad egg situation, and a slippery-slope:

There were some who wondered about other negative consequences of abolishing the rule -- as well as, of course, the problem of lousy drivers:

One questioned the consequences of taking a reactive step like this on our reputation internationally, too:

Others proposed penalties:

We certainly don't envy our authorities faced with petitions like this.

But all this is certainly worth thinking about.

If you'd like to see the petition in full, you can access it here.

Top photo: screenshot from Google Maps