Person down Oval 29/06/09

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.

As has been said: very brave to post here.
|However, 20 years behind the HGV wheel, so he knows all about blind spots. I have driven HGV's over the years and spent lots of time adjusting mirrors to account for "blind spots". Can't get them all, but you can reduce them to the point where a bit of bum shuffling makes rearward vision coverage 90%. And I was always aware of the other 10%.
Now I ain't passin judgment. I wasn't there so I can't say. But I do agree with many of the posts here: It is obviously a problem that driver/cyclist education/training is not addressing. How many more will die before road users and the powers that be take notice?