On the night on the 10th January 1987, nearly a year into the dispute, 19 year old boy Micheal Delaney comes home from the pub with his friends. He had been celebrating his 19th birthday. On the junction where cable street meets butchers row, a TNT lorry carrying a load of newspapers from the Wapping plant was waiting at a red light. In solidarity with the picketers in Wapping, despite not being involved in the dispute himself, Micheal Delaney began to bang on the door of the lorry. As the traffic light turns green, Robert Higgins, the driver of the lorry, sets off. Micheal Delaney is dragged under the wheels of the lorry and dies in the early hours of the next morning in hospital. When the police arrive at the scene, they arrest all of Micheal Delaney's friends. Robert Higgins does not stop until he reaches Heston services on the M4.
A year after an inquiry that labelled the death as an unlawful killing was ignored by director of public prosecutions, who chose not to begin a criminal prosecution of Higgins, the inquiry itself was rejected in high court.
Not long after receiving this news in 1988, Cappi and Ellis walk from the cable street butchers row junction to Heston services. They photograph every traffic light on their route, recording relevant data for each of the 74 lights.
The total distance of the route is recorded to be 17.498 miles.