Solution to truck deaths

[NHS Biker]

Anyone who travels up the inside of any vehicle whether it being at a left turn or traffic lights deserves to be side swipped.

Far better to filter on the right hand side and then position your self in front of the vehicle, left of centre, so that way the driver can see you. However in terms of HGV's, if you are turning left, position yourself so you can see the left mirror of the lorry.

Better still get off the bike, walk on the path and rejoin on the left hand road you are wanting to take when safe to do so.

 

[gavintc]

This is a North American article where side under run guards are not obligatory.

 

[shouldbeinbed]

Anyone who travels up the inside of any vehicle whether it being at a left turn or traffic lights deserves to be side swipped.

Far better to filter on the right hand side and then position your self in front of the vehicle, left of centre, so that way the driver can see you. However in terms of HGV's, if you are turning left, position yourself so you can see the left mirror of the lorry.

Better still get off the bike, walk on the path and rejoin on the left hand road you are wanting to take when safe to do so.

Best of all, don't filter such large, multi blind spotted vehicles at all. Sit on your bike in position in the queue if you can see a big beastie at the head of the line. Don't assume there is an ASL / it will be clear / the high up driving position will see you if you do get into it.
How desperately do you need that extra handful of seconds.

 

[benb]

Anyone who travels up the inside of any vehicle whether it being at a left turn or traffic lights deserves to be side swipped.

That's rather callous, don't you think? Saying someone deserves to be injured or killed because they were not aware of cycling best practice?

 

[Markymark]

I've pointed it out a few times to cyclists I've seen edging up the tight inside of a stationery lorry that this is how most cyclists in London die in an effiort to try and stop them becoming a statistic.

I usually get some blank response like I should mind my own bsuiness.

 

[dawesome]

I've pointed it out a few times to cyclists I've seen edging up the tight inside of a stationery lorry that this is how most cyclists in London die

No, it isn't. Quite a few HGV fatalities have been the cyclist hit from behind, or by a drunk driver, one whose eyesight is poor and tacho's been fiddled, or a driver on a mobile.

 

[dellzeqq]

No, it isn't. Quite a few HGV fatalities have been the cyclist hit from behind, or by a drunk driver, one whose eyesight is poor and tacho's been fiddled, or a driver on a mobile.

thankyou. That needed saying - and not for the first time.

 

[dawesome]

In more than 75% of vehicle/cyclist collisions it is the driver who is at fault, either, we need to get away from this victim-blaming, there is NOTHING to suggest the cyclist did anything wrong.

John Forester says of The Times Cities Fit For Cycling campaign:

The whole agenda is nothing more than a mix of half-baked ideas. … Consider the emphasis on HGVs. Fit them up to prevent “cyclists from being thrown under the wheels”.​

Eilidh Cairns, an experienced commuter cyclist, was killed in February 2009, when a tipper truck driven by Joao Lopes ploughed over her from behind. Lopes was fined £200 for driving with defective vision, but the death was ruled “accidental” and he was free to kill again.

Catriona Patel, an experienced commuter cyclist, was killed in the Monday morning rush hour in June 2009. Pulling away from the Advanced Stop Line as the lights turned green outside Oval Station, a 32-tonne tipper lorry driven by Dennis Putz accelerated into her. Witnesses had to bang on the side of the truck before the oblivious Putz stopped. Putz was a serial dangerous driver, was hung-over — 40% over the limit — and talking on his mobile phone. He denied a charge of causing death by dangerous driving, but was sentenced to 7 years for it. Brian Dorling, an experienced commuter cyclist and motorcyclist, was killed in the morning rush hour in October last year. A tipper truck turned across his path at the Bow Intersection. They had to use his dental records to identify him.

Deep Lee was struck by a lorry from behind as the lights turned green;

Svitlana Tereschenko was killed by a tipper truck whose distracted driver failed to indicate before turning and driving over her.

Daniel Cox was run over by a truck which did not have the correct mirrors and whose driver had pulled into the ASL on a red light and was indicating in the opposite direction to which he turned.

Try telling Ian McNicoll that his son Andrew, well versed in cyclecraft as a road and commuter cyclist, should have known better than to throw himself under the wheels of the articulated lorry that side-swiped while overtaking him in Edinburgh.

Try telling Debbie Dorling that her cycle and motorcycle-trained husband should have behaved differently at Bow.

Try telling Allister Carey that the death of his daughter Eleanor under the wheels of a lorry in Tower Bridge Road was her own fault.

The cycling “community” in this country might not always agree about the most appropriate or desirable method for reducing exposure to danger and its role as a barrier to cycling, but I think at least one thing can unite us: anyone who, knowing little about the world says that the problem here is all cyclists’ own fault for throwing themselves under the wheels of trucks, is an **** who can keep his discredited half-baked ideas to himself."

http://waronthemotorist.wordpress.com/2012/07/27/john-forester-is-an-peanut/

 

[dellzeqq]

to which one could add Christelle Browne run over from behind at Vallance Road

 

[dawesome]

Or the truly horrible death of Tony Spink:

http://www.outdoorsmagic.com/forum/soapbox/tony-spink-killed---resurrected/32895.html

 

[GrasB]

It may well be a start but even for turning on a cyclists that has gone up the inside those guard rails aren't close to being fool proof. Once a person is on the ground it only needs 3-4" or so of ground clearance for the vehicle to be able to roll over it's victim.

 

[shouldbeinbed]

Or the truly horrible death of Tony Spink:

http://www.outdoorsmagic.com/forum/soapbox/tony-spink-killed---resurrected/32895.html

I remember this and not to minimise the tragedy; it is clear from reports at the time; this incident was caused by a cyclist filtering from significantly (20-30 secs) behind the truck and stopping in its forward blind spot; I guess not realising the extent of an HGV's forward blind spot from 12 odd feet in the air behind a big dashboard, or simply assuming the driver was somehow aware or expecting that he'd filtered a narrow gap on his heavily laden bike.
Notwithstanding the despicable actions of the driver in the miles after when he eventually did respond to the fact that he'd run someone over; by simply removing & discarding the bike brfore driving on; harsh as it may come across I cannot see this collision in the quite same way as those you quote of the entirely innocent/unfortunate cyclists who were already there when the trucks came at them.

@GrasB +lots. It's a case of be careful what you wish for. There was a fatal incident in Manchester recently when a pedestrian trying to get across the road as the lights were on the turn got caught out and pulled under a bumper to road gap of a few inches on a Dutch articulated lorry. Sadly she was trapped in the gap and dragged/pushed along the ground for some distance before finally rolling under and out the back of the truck.
Bad road surfaces and traffic calming means there will always have to be that gap between heavy vehicle and road and it really isn't a place I'd like to find myself pinned in.

 

[PK99]

Or the truly horrible death of Tony Spink:

http://www.outdoorsmagic.com/forum/soapbox/tony-spink-killed---resurrected/32895.html

Tragic though that story is, and contemptible as the drivers actions were: Would you advise any cyclist to repeat the maneuver executed by Tony Spink?

I woud advise them to follow the guidance of the London Cycling Campaign : http://lcc.org.uk/articles/four-steps-for-cyclists-to-stay-out-of-the-lorry-slash-hgv-danger-zone

 

[dawesome]

Our Tony was an experienced cyclist who had cycled thousands of miles throughout Britain and even in America.


There is no way he would have undertaken a moving lorry that was indicating left at traffic lights in front of him, nor a stationary lorry indicating left either. He was faced with a stationary line of traffic at a set of traffic lights and a lorry that gave no indication it was about to turn left. Knowing my brother as I do our Tony deemed the traffic in front of him safe enough to cycle to the front of the traffic lights and secure a safe position for setting off.

 

[dellzeqq]

Tragic though that story is, and contemptible as the drivers actions were: Would you advise any cyclist to repeat the maneuver executed by Tony Spink?

I woud advise them to follow the guidance of the London Cycling Campaign : http://lcc.org.uk/articles/four-steps-for-cyclists-to-stay-out-of-the-lorry-slash-hgv-danger-zone

I wouldn't advise them to repeat it, but let's be clear - he was hit by a truck coming from behind and turning left in to him. He probably got to where he was by filtering, but he was in front of the truck when he was run over. And we all find ourselves ahead of trucks from time to time.