Mark Nicholas Welsh · Prevention of Future Deaths report

On 17 July 2017, I commenced an investigation into the death of Mark Nicholas Welsh, aged 55 years.

The investigation concluded at the end of the inquest on 18 December 2017. I made a determination of death by road traffic collision, when Mr Welsh was knocked over by a lorry whilst crossing Duke’s Road at the junction with Euston Road in London at approximately 9.30am on Thursday, 6 July 2017.

The medical cause of death was:
1a multiple injuries.

Despite travelling at just 7 miles per hour, the lorry driver turning left into Duke’s Road from Euston Road would only have had a second to see Mr Welsh as a hazard, through the front passenger cab window, before the pedestrian disappeared from his view.

The lorry would have been visible to Mr Welsh and it did have its indicator on, but because it had to swing out to make the turn, it might have appeared to him that the lorry was going to carry straight on along Euston Road, falsely reassuring him that it was safe to cross.

I heard at inquest that:

• Transport for London (TfL) made a decision in 2007 that it would not undertake any consideration of pedestrian crossings at that crossroads until after the completion of HS1;
• £50,000 was paid to TfL in 2009 by UNISON as part of planning permission to allow building on the opposite corner, £20,000 of which was used on a feasibility study in 2013, but TfL decided that traffic flow would be impeded by four pedestrian crossings, so none was installed and use was not made of the remaining £30,000;
• UNISON has made several complaints to Camden Council/TfL about the dangers of this particular crossroads, but TfL’s best expectation of delivery of any improvement is for the year 2020.

I appreciate that every decision about traffic control at one junction must be taken in the context of the whole network, but 13 years after the issue was first raised seems an inordinately long time to wait for some improvement at such a busy crossroads (about which there had been several complaints prior to this fatality).

Consideration of the junction was described to me as being based on four new crossings or none, which I did not quite understand.

The statistics upon which TfL decisions about traffic control are based, were described to me by TfL’s lead sponsor as only taking account of the proportion of collisions/accidents that result in serious injury or death, not taking into account the overall incidence of collisions/accidents (or even taking into account reported near misses). This seems an omission.