Sarah Simpson
On Monday evening I watched Downfall, the new Netflix documentary about the circumstances around the Boeing 737 Max disasters in 2018 and 2019. Inevitably, given the circumstances of those events and my involvement in the debate on smart motorways and roads safety in general, I found myself noting parallels in perception in the Boeing 737 Max and All Lane Running Smart Motorway. While the organisational and technical contexts for these cases are distinct and different, considering these parallels can be instructive.
I have found that (with a high degree of consistency) there is little understanding of what is meant in practical terms when we talk about roads transport as a Safe System. The Downfall documentary does a great job of shining a light on what safety systems* are, and what its failure can look like. If you haven’t seen it, it is worth a watch. If you have seen it, it is possible you might recognise some similarities between the 737 Max and All Lane Running in terms of progression and outcome:
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link to documentary: see note below, before clicking
link here