September 2008 was one of the deadliest for London’s cyclists with four fatalities. These shocking figures emerge as the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) launches a new campaign to improve safety for cyclists in London by focusing on lorries travelling to and from the Olympic park in Stratford. The timing of the campaign is fitting, of the four cycling fatalities in London last month three were as a result of collisions with lorries.
The cycling team at leading personal injury law firm Leigh Day & Co is currently involved in a number of cases where cyclists have been killed after being hit or dragged under lorries, often as the lorries turn left across the path of cyclists as happened last week as a 31 year old died in Holborn, London. Lorry drivers often fail to notice cyclists who are waiting to turn left alongside them at traffic lights or road junctions despite the fact that they have a number of mirrors for this purpose.
Penny Knight, head of the cycling team at Leigh Day, has represented the families of a number of cyclists at inquests into their deaths. She remains concerned that many lorry drivers do not receive adequate training into the proper use of their mirrors. She welcomes the introduction of new regulations that will come into force in 2009 requiring lorries registered from 2000 onwards to have three mirrors fitted on the nearside - proximity, rear view and reverse angle.
Cynthia Barlow is helping with the ODA campaign. Her cyclist daughter was killed by a cement mixer on her way to work six years ago and her Cynthia has since become heavily involved in raising cycle awareness with lorry drivers. The ODA will be distributing 1,600 Fresnel lenses to lorry drivers in the first stage of the campaign. These lenses can be fixed to the passenger window to enable drivers to see cyclists and vehicles on the passenger side of the lorry.
Penny said:
"On one hand, particularly in London, we are being encouraged to "get on our bikes" for health and environment reasons and as cyclists, so we should. But it seems very little is being done to highlight to lorry drivers in particular the dangers of driving in a built-up area and the vulnerability of cyclists. It is terrible that it takes such tragedies to bring about straight-forward changes which other European countries have already adopted."
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