The route that was not checked
1A team planned to deliver a model to a community exhibition on Friday morning. The driver followed an old route without checking the road notice. A bridge on that route was closed, and the van had to turn back. The team arrived after the exhibition had opened.
2The notice had been available on Thursday. A second route was open, and the team had enough time to use it if they had checked before leaving. Looking back, the driver said, "If we had checked the notice, we would have taken the second route." He was describing an alternative to what had actually happened, not reporting a journey they had made.
3At the review meeting, the team separated facts from imagined alternatives. They had not checked the notice, and they had not taken the second route. The review did not establish that the second route would have prevented every possible delay. It identified one missed decision and a different action that the available information would have supported.