Solution to truck deaths

[ozzage]

I sometimes think that only the "fit, smart and strong" are deemed worthy of cyling in the UK by many people.

Do you think a child is reliably going to take primary in front of an HGV? A ditzy teenage girl who is more worried about the fact that she's got a text message? A grandma who is perhaps a bit hard of hearing, a bit wobbly and is frankly scared of the trucks?

The roads need to be engineered so that mistakes don't cost lives. It's done in other countries and can be done in the UK. All this emphasis on trying to get people to ride "perfectly" 100% of the time is a diversion. It's never going to happen and if cycling ever does actually take off here and move into other demographics, then it's even LESS likely to happen.

Road engineering is the only answer. Most people will never be reliable, consistently good, vehicular cyclists. They shouldn't die due to that failure.

 

[ufkacbln]

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.

The basic point that in the majority of these cases the cyclist is in the right position and it has been caused by the vehicle overtaking the cyclist....

The only time I have had issues have been overtakes and left hooks. So despite taking the primary and observing all the rules I "deserve" to be knocked off by someone who is simply impatient and with no concern with other road users?

Or do I simply walk at all of the thirty junctions just in case?

 

[classic33]

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/

Whist available, Commercial and Motor,(Current edition) are giving the drivers side of the incident and the measures taken by the company since the death of Eleanor Carey. Three page article on the incident. Including the effect it had on the driver.
Posted here as a search for the name of the person killed throw this up in results.
There are some out there who are activley trying to do something, after such an incident.

 

[Linford]

I rode my motorbike up the m5 tonight, i passed 2 hgvs in the crawler lane tailgating with about 15ft between them. They were being overtaken by another 2 hgvs , the rear one was also tailgating and there was about 10ft between them....standards are very poor. They should all regularly go on simulators to show how hard they would hit the lorry in front if the other stopped quickly or had a blowout.

 

[classic33]

I picked up that magazine because of the cover story. I'm hoping to get someone from the magazine to come on and try and explain the issues raised from their side.
Hopefully a better response than the RHA or FTA!

 

[porteous]

Patience would help, a driving/cycling asset that seems in very short supply these days.
Combine that with driver/cyclist compliance of the law applying to road users and just a little mutual respect and we could even end up enjoying our travel in safety.

As well as being a cyclist I have a full cat D bus licence and cat D truck licence. Driving in London is, frankly, a nightmare and I avoid it. Safety is every road users responsibility. Changing the current levels of road danger will probably depend on real enforcement of traffic law to all road users while we learn to control irritation, anger,aggression and thoughtlessness; all of which are out of place on the roads and can lead to the ruin or loss of other folks lives..

 

[oldstrath]

Whist available, Commercial and Motor,(Current edition) are giving the drivers side of the incident and the measures taken by the company since the death of Eleanor Carey. Three page article on the incident. Including the effect it had on the driver.
Posted here as a search for the name of the person killed throw this up in results.
There are some out there who are activley trying to do something, after such an incident.

Fine bit of special pleading from the company, but two months ago at least one of their drivers was hardly helping their case:
http://road.cc/content/news/100358-haulage-magazine-puts-lorry-firms-view-cyclists-death-video


Hard to think of a good excuse for his behaviour, or a way to blame the cyclist he overtook if the incident had happened.

 

[Nigel-YZ1]

I came out of work a couple of years ago and saw bedlam at the end of the road from the industrial estate.
Two of my work colleagues had been going home, one turning left, the other right.
A skip truck from a neighbouring company was turning left too. He was so busy whooping and hollering at the breasts of the girl in the car to his right, he forgot there was car in front of him.
He only stopped shunting that car down the road when he thought the truck was felling sluggish and stopped.
If you can't see a Fiat Bravo from one of these things then what hope does a cyclist have?

 

[classic33]

Can I just say that I'm looking at this from the point of view of a cylist that ended up under the trailer of an articulated lorry.
Due only to the driver of the vehicle. He saw me on the road, but still pulled out onto the road.
Whilst able to stop to avoid running into the side of it, I didn't have time to avoid what he did next, that being to tighten his turn, bringing the trailer into me & then over me. This done at a speed that left no time to react to what was happenning.
Turned out that the driver was foreign, with no licence to drive in this country & who couldn't care about what he'd done. He was late & I was just something in his way. He wasn't even aware of the fact that traffic on the road had right of way, over his rights
I came out between the rear wheels of the trailer.

 

[oldstrath]

I came out of work a couple of years ago and saw bedlam at the end of the road from the industrial estate.
Two of my work colleagues had been going home, one turning left, the other right.
A skip truck from a neighbouring company was turning left too. He was so busy whooping and hollering at the breasts of the girl in the car to his right, he forgot there was car in front of him.
He only stopped shunting that car down the road when he thought the truck was felling sluggish and stopped.
If you can't see a Fiat Bravo from one of these things then what hope does a cyclist have?

Hardly that he couldn''t see the Fiat, more that he couldn't be bothered looking. i suspect 'poor visibility from the cab', although a poor excuse, is sometimes offered up in place of the accurate 'I could not be bothered'.

 

[steveindenmark]

There is a company truck called CEMEX who is involved in all sorts of cycling initiatives and who are fitting their fleet with all manner of devices to keep cyclists safe. It is only a drop in the ocean but they are to be congratulated for at least trying to sort the problem out.

http://www.bikeradar.com/news/artic...ors-to-keep-vulnerable-road-users-safe-28547/

Steve

 

[classic33]

Travis Perkins are doing something similar,

 

[steveindenmark]

User, you do not "shame" a multi million pound company into doing anything. I know the Cynthia Barlow story very well and she has done an excellent job of getting Cemex on board. But Cemex have taken up the baton when they could have quite easily have fobbed her off.

They are now working with other groups off their own backs. Credit where crédit is due.

Steve

 

[RedRider]

It's probably simple to design a mechanism to draw up the side protection for off road use. Unfortunately like other life saving concepts its probably not financially viable enough for any private company to research and design it.

It's financially viable if they were fined heavily enough for not doing it.

 

[classic33]

It's financially viable if they were fined heavily enough for not doing it.

Given that the right equipment is already there, but the reluctance to fit it prevents is use. Compulsory fitting of them is meeting with a similar reluctance.
What do you suggest now?