Another cyclist dies on London roads
Another cyclist was killed at noon today at the junction of Camberwell Road and Albany Road. Yet again the accident involved a cyclist and an HGV, and this most recent death takes the toll to 6 London cycling deaths in the past 2 weeks.
In addition a cyclist was killed in Bath on Saturday and another cyclist was killed in Hartlepool last night.
There have been a number of articles and press statements over the weekend about the need for cyclists to be more careful. However, many of the crashes that we investigate involve a cyclist and an HGV/bus and very often the cyclist is either killed or injured because the HGV did not have the proper mirrors, or if it did have mirrors then they were not adjusted properly. In one case, when we investigated we were able to show clearly that the bus in question had in fact gone through a red light and hit our client - though the preceding police investigation had failed to identify this fact.
The idea that the blame lies with cyclists is misplaced and is sending out the wrong message. HGV drivers need better training, their companies need to give them specific cycle awareness training, and all HGVs travelling in City Centres should be required to have full view mirrors that are properly adjusted.
5% of vehicles in the City are HGVs and yet they cause 50% of cycle related accidents.