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@vinylvillain
I disagree - one of the big problems with the cycling community is that we dont take enough responsibility for our actions - there have been many great campaigns aimed at HGV drivers to make them more aware, but where the fuck has there been a decent campaign to make cyclists aware - i know they exist, but on a level which is off the radar of the average cyclist.
Dylan does have a point, because too many deaths are the cyclists fault, all the more tragically because the majority of the time the cyclist has no idea that the situation they are putting themsleves in is lethal. All of us every day see other cyclists putting themselves in crazy positions seemingly unaware of the dangers. As i have said before, and others have said too, learning to ride a motorcycle taught me more about road awarensss and the perils of HGV's busses etc than anything else because you are taught how they use the road space, and how to avoid getting into situations you dont want to be in.
We need to change this because there should never be an excuse for the HGV driver, never be a need for a cyclist to take a risk tht they are not even aware they are taking, and never be a need for anyone to find themselve in that position. You are right that a Driver needs to check their mirrors 100%, but you forget that even when they do this it is still the case that a moving cyclist is all but invisible to a moving HGV, no matter how carefull they are, and the majority of HGV drivers (i know a fair few as i used to work in Logistics) dread driving in central London because of this.
Rather than just pointing fingers at others we need to improve the road awareness of cyclists and make sure that the powers that be are doing everything to safeguard us aswell.
And thank god there are discussions like this on here because as has been said many times before they have raised the awareness of how HGV's effect us, and i for one have become a better rider as a result.
My views have nothing to do with the recent deaths and do not relate to these incidents, but surely the point of this thread is to discuss the issue here, and not in the threads relating to specific cases where it would be inappropriate