Person down Oval 29/06/09

The following were posted on the Stockwell News website:

http://www.stockwellnews.com/2009/06/major-incident-at-oval.html

Anonymous said... It was my partner who was driving the Lorry. He is absolutely traumatised. Our sympathies go the the family, such a tragic accident. Our lives have been changed forever.
June 30, 2009 9:44 AM

Anonymous said... The driver, my partner, had not been drinking. It was just after 8 in the morning!! He is in deep shock a terrible terrible accident. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family. Our lives will never be the same again.
June 30, 2009 12:34 PM

Anonymous said... I am a friend of the woman who died, Catriona. She was a lovely woman and wonderful wife to Anish. I cant believe what has happened to them and their family, its a tradegy. Sympathies to eveyyone involved with this terrible terrible accident and god bless their family through these difficult times
June 30, 2009 3:46 PM

My partner was the driver of the Lorry which was in the accident on Monday where sadly a woman cyclist died. I have read all the posts about this and some have been quite upsetting as a lot of comments have been way off the mark. My partner had not been drinking all night, he was safely tucked up in bed at 9pm watching TV with a cup of tea. He is an experienced HGV driver of 20yrs and has never had an accident. The cyclist came up on his left side and has sais he simply did not see her,he did check his mirror but she was in his blind spot. I have researched this and a lot of accidents have happened this way. He was arrested, this would be normal practise after an accident of this nature, the police are now conducting an investigation. He is traumatised and our lives will never be the same again. Our thoughts and prayers are with her family at this terrible time.

Julie

That was a very brave post. Thank you for making it.

Julie - thank you for contributing. I hope your partner recovers from his trauma. I wouldn't wish that experience on anyone.

To everyone else - can we please stop speculating on what may or may not have happened when tragic events like this occur. It must be awful for those involved to read such threads so let's not exacerbate things by apportioning blame without knowing what actually happened.

Sadly people die on Britian's roads every day and we should all - be that pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists and drivers - do what we can to minimise these deaths.

Julie

That was a very brave post. Thank you for making it.

Agreed. A sad situation for all involved.

As most people have said it is a tragedy for all involved when these collisions occur and you wouldn't wish it upon anyone.

Julie, I would like to echo andyp's sentiment and extend my sincerest condolences to the family and friends of the cyclist. RIP.

Ed & Ga2g, I think the theory behind the spoke card thing was seeing it as a means of distributing info by putting them in the wheels of bikes locked up, etc. in the hope that the riders would read them when they came to get their bikes. Not as a method of delivering info whilst cycling, but this is probably a discussion for the relevant thread.

Deepest sympathies to everybody involved. Thoughts go out to Catriona's family and friends.

So very sad.

Ride safe everyone.

Julie; thankyou for your contribution. It does however show how frightening the situation with HGVs is; if a driver with 20 years' experience can end up in this situation having apparently done everything right then clearly until major changes are made cyclists will continue to die. What mirrors were fitted to his vehicle? How much training or warning had he had specific to the risk of not being able to see cyclists on his left? Has the company he works for done anything at all on this issue?
Given the situation I wouldn't really ask you to answer these questions on an internet forum but they are the questions that need to be asked and answered at some point.
Your partner is the one who now has to live with the consequences of a systematic failure by government, local and national, and by private companies. To say nothing of the far greater consequences for the family of the woman who died.
Maybe the best that can come out of this is the realisation that cyclists and HGV drivers have a common interest. The more the two are able to communicate and work together the sooner some progress might be made.

This is awful news.
An incredibly brave thing to do by Julie - my thoughts are with your family as well.

I don't think there's anymore to be said about this on this thread. there's a thread by guerillaphotos and another one for contacting boris. I think they might be better positioned for discussions of what we can do next.

And she was wearing a helmet and Hi-Viz. Hardly fucking inconspicuous was she? Where the hell was the lorry driver looking?

My old man used to drive HGVs, so I spent a lot of time in the cab as a nipper. There's a kind of front blind spot on HGVs, if you're not far enough forward for the driver to see you through the windscreen but not far enough back to be seen in the mirrors. Cyclists who pull up right on the kerbside, so the lorry pulls alongside, can be forgotten by the driver - especially at a really long set of lights, there's any number of distractions. Or, if they're not studying their mirrors the entire time they're sat at the light, cyclists can sneak up the inside unnoticed and then be sat in that spot unseen.

If you can't trackstand and you don't want to unclip, a lot of people stop by leaning on the railings, rather than plonking themselves in the middle of the lane under the driver's nose so they can't be missed. I see people doing that every day. Sooner or later one of them has to come a cropper.

I'm not saying it happened in this case, it's just what can happen.

My old man used to drive HGVs, so I spent a lot of time in the cab as a nipper. There's a kind of front blind spot on HGVs, if you're not far enough forward for the driver to see you through the windscreen but not far enough back to be seen in the mirrors. Cyclists who pull up right on the kerbside, so the lorry pulls alongside, can be forgotten by the driver - especially at a really long set of lights, there's any number of distractions. Or, if they're not studying their mirrors the entire time they're sat at the light, cyclists can sneak up the inside unnoticed and then be sat in that spot unseen.

If you can't trackstand and you don't want to unclip, a lot of people stop by leaning on the railings, rather than plonking themselves in the middle of the lane under the driver's nose so they can't be missed. I see people doing that every day. Sooner or later one of them has to come a cropper.

I'm not saying it happened in this case, it's just what can happen.

Not really the place for this ^^^

RIP to the rider xxx

The sign/motif at the top of this KiwiCycles page, was created here, on Lfgss. That is quite brilliant. http://www.kiwicycles.com/links.htm

I personally think that is excellent. Not knowing the history behind this, was it created to be made into stickers etc?

I for one would love to get a big version of that made up into a sticker and just slap it on the back of my bag. Sat at the front of some lights, people are definitely going to see it and just cycling around too

Sorry if this is what it was originally created for

@ Dave ^^ Then where is the place for this? Neatly out of sight where no one takes any notice? It's very very easy to lay all the 'blame' (for want of a better word) on the drivers, but it is also of the utmost importance that the implications of riding up the left hand side of a large vehicle are clearly and repeatedly stated. It is no coincidence that such a vast majority of these deaths and injuries have occurred in worryingly similar circumstances.

Radius this thread is to give your condolences to the rider and her family.

Not to speculate on what might or might not have happened.

Her relatives are reading this

Start a new thread

I am very saddened by her death and can only offer my sympathy to her family, and apologise if it sounded like I was making assumptions, but remain true to what I said in my previous post, even if this wasn't the case in this incident.

The one thing Boris can do is start tearing down railings at junctions.

...cyclists and HGV drivers have a common interest. The more the two are able to communicate and work together the sooner some progress might be made.

+1 it's not black/white about bad drivers and good cyclists.

Julie - just to echo what others have said, that was a very brave post. My sympathies for you and your partner as well as the friends and loved ones of the cyclist. May the truth come out.

Guys,

you might want to look at this thread I've started over on CycleChat. It's just one idea about how we can work towards preventing 'accidents' like this in the future. Feel free to pop over to offer help/ let me know what you think etc.

Good idea Mags, I managed to miss that on CC :)

Very brave post indeed, I still don't understand why people pass down the left, or get ahead of vehicles, I for one make sure the driver can see me, it's a survival instinct?

I hope your partner can come to terms with this awful event.

Very brave post indeed, I still don't understand why people pass down the left, or get ahead of vehicles, I for one make sure the driver can see me, it's a survival instinct?

None of this speculation is particularly helpful, and will almost certainly be upsetting to friends and family. We do not know what happened here! Please, as Andyp and others have suggested, keep these opinions to yourselves or post in the threads about general cycle safety. RIP, and my condolences to all affected by this terrible and sad accident.

Very sad reading all of this - makes me realise how fragile life is. I can't add anything more than has already been said - be safe everyone and condolences to all affected. Those pictures really brought it home too.

Sorry to hijack this thread but I can't start threads yet. Just wanted to bring attention to two accidents this afternoon. Borough High Street - cyclist and a lorry and also Kirkdale in Sydenham - cyclist and a bus.

Hope both cyclists make a recovery. Not a good week.

Boz Boz, this isnt the place - PM Velocio about getting you out of nursery early I'm sure he will for this
and edit your post.