Death by regulation

[Martin Cassini]

Was the crash that killed 3 people and injured 35 on the A66 near Keswick an accident? Or was it an event contrived by the rules of the road? It happened at a T-junction. The rules tell main road drivers to ignore side roads, so they barrel along at whatever the speed fixers dictate - 50 or 60 presumably. I don't know how long the Honda driver had been waiting to exit from the lower status side road, but presumably quite a while. As frustration in the side road driver mounts, the perception of a safe gap diminishes. We can only imagine the delay he endured, and his horror when he realised his time was up. It was a tragedy in the sense that the intolerable conflict contrived by directional priority prompted his fatal decision to move, but the fault wasn't the driver's. The fault is endemic in the traffic control system by which we live and die. The T-junction (location of the "accident") can be seen at http://itn.co.uk/35761d396e7ee8ecd2611379bc896dff.html