Is it carelessness? Is it ignorance? Is it the sudden fear of something very new and very big rolling down our local city streets?

Whatever the reasons for the 10 collisions between cars and Ion trains over the past seven weeks, those are 10 collisions too many.

Motorists venturing out in Kitchener and Waterloo near the 19-kilometre light rail transit corridor should realize they need to be wary. And prepared. The cities have changed. Drivers must change, too.

Unfortunately, too many have not. They're disobeying signs or not looking out for trains. They're stepping on the gas when they should be stepping on the brakes.

They're especially taking too little care at the intersections motorists must share with the trains. And eight of the 10 collisions that have happened so far involved a motorist who reportedly turned into the path of a train while mistakenly attempting a left turn, right turn or U-turn.

Also worth noting is that fully half of these collisions have taken place on a short stretch of King Street running between Victoria Street in Kitchener and Union Street in Waterloo. That's a busy, main artery that's been greatly altered to put two-way trains in the centre median while introducing unfamiliar traffic signal and new turning bans.

Because that part of King has been reduced to a single traffic lane in each direction, it quickly becomes slow or backed up. Drivers grow impatient. Impatience makes for bad decisions - and unwanted bang-ups.

No wonder, then, that the drivers of motor vehicles, not the drivers of Ion trains were likely at fault in all 10 collisions - four of which occurred before the trains started carrying passengers on June 21 while the remaining six have happened since.

It is, of course, worth putting these collisions into the context of an area that sees 17 motor vehicle collisions on regional roads on a typical day. The region is witnessing a car colliding with an Ion train once every five days. That's a significant number, but no epidemic.

That said, even small collisions create big problems. The impacted trains have been stopped for at least 20 minutes while repair crews tended to the damage. Other service interruptions were far longer. In some cases, a shuttle bus helped ferry passengers to their destination.

Nor are the people in the cars emerging unscathed. Charges have been laid or are pending against the motorists in eight of these mishaps. And while no one was seriously hurt in any of 10 collisions, five people from damaged motor vehicles were taken to hospital to be treated for minor injuries or as a precaution.

Perhaps we've been lucky the consequences of these collisions haven't been worse. But because no one can rely solely on luck, we urge drivers to pay greater attention to the signage around the Ion route and obey it.

When turning, drivers should remember to check over their shoulder to ensure there's no train moving up behind them that has the right-of-way. And no driver should ever stop or park on the tracks.

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Police have wisely started to avoid driving on King Street between Kitchener and Waterloo. Motorists should either consider following this example or carefully learn how to navigate this tricky stretch of roadway.

Last of all, Grand River Transit's website has great information on how to keep safe around the Ion line. It should be required reading for every driver, cyclist or pedestrian in the area. The light rail trains are here, so let's learn how to live with them happily ever after.