Just about anyone would agree it's crucial to provide for public safety at busy intersections, especially in an area known to be crowded with children and other pedestrians.

In practice, though, people don't give the issue the urgency it deserves. Judging by how long it's taking to install two traffic signals in 'Ewa Beach, neighbors can only conclude that someone's priorities are out of whack.

The stoplights have been in the planning stages for as long as Gentry Properties has been working on the subdivisions in the area, and the company has agreed to pay for them as part of the project. They would be installed at a pair of intersections a few blocks apart: at Geiger Road and Kapolei Parkway, near a big community park; and at Iroquois Point Road and Keaunui Street, near Holomua Elementary School, where a young student and three other pedestrians were struck by a car Monday.

As is typical in such cases, it's hard to know where to point the finger of blame. Lawmakers say it's stuck in the permitting process; government officials counter that Gentry only recently sought the permit for the lights. And now the company projects that they'll be installed nine months from now.

That's just unacceptable. These stoplights should have been in place four or five years ago, soon after homes were built on the makai side of Iroquois Point Road.

And nobody cares whose fault it is at this point. Taxpayers simply insist that the problem is fixed — now.

The sooner everyone can untangle what should have been a routine decision, the better.