When making a right turn

Explanation

You pass through the junction first.

A tram's precedence is not absolute; it holds only "in equal conditions". In this picture the conditions are not equal: the traffic controller has held his right arm forward and you see him from his left side, which means movement in all directions is free for you. The tram on the right sees that same signal from behind the controller's back, and in that position movement is prohibited. So the tram must stop and you, with your right indicator on, perform the turn.

The working logic is that a traffic controller's signal takes precedence over the light, the signs and all the general priority rules. When an officer is standing in the middle of a junction, the first thing you must read is the orientation of his body and arms, not who is coming from the right and who is on the rails.

The trap in this question is exactly the sentence everyone has memorised: "a tram always has priority". That sentence is incomplete; a rail vehicle's precedence has meaning only when both parties have permission to move. Someone who has no permission to move has no priority to surrender either. Even so, before entering the junction, check that the tram really is stopping; its great mass means that even correct braking takes several dozen metres.

• The rule "priority belongs to the tram" is correct but conditional; it breaks here because the controller's signal is seen by the tram from behind his back and has prohibited its movement.

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