Just over an hour ago, two families were travelling through Romford by car.  As luck would have it, they both arrived at the traffic lights outside my flat at about the same time.  One of the cars, it scarcely matters which, jumped a red light.  The two families, who might otherwise never have met, came together about as violently as it's possible to do.

An hour later, all traces of the encounter have been cleared away, but:  Two people left by ambulance, one of them injured badly enough that they had to be cut out of their car, and lifted carefully, oh, so carefully, on to the gurney.  A small child has had an experience that will probably give it nightmares for a long time.  Two more people are severely shocked.  The two cars involved are just so much scrap metal.  All their lives will have been severely blighted for a fair while.

I don't know any of these people, but this all makes me very sad.  Not in any judgemental way; I'm not complaining about careless driving or suchlike - every driver there's ever been has made mistakes at one time or another; nor even in a "somebody should do something" sort of way (especially not that) - just sad for the trauma caused to these five people.  Life's a harsh bugger.