Danger! HGVs

MPs urge crackdown on foreign trucks

LONDON (Reuters) - MPs called on Monday for the agency that carries out safety checks on lorries on Britain's roads to be given more powers after a high proportion of unsafe vehicles were found to be foreign-owned.

A report by the House of Commons Transport Committee found almost half of vehicles examined in Britain and registered overseas were unroadworthy or deficient in some way, compared with 38 percent of UK vehicles.

Foreign-registered vehicles account for more than 80 percent of heavy goods traffic in Britain.

"Britain has some of the safest roads in Europe but more must be done to ensure compliance with our safety standards for lorries, buses and coaches," said the committee's chairman Louise Ellman.

The worst offenders were Czech-registered Heavy Goods Vehicle (HGV) drivers, 60 percent of whose trucks failed roadworthiness tests in 2007--2008, the report said.

Polish and Hungarian vehicles failed more than 50 percent of safety checks, while German and Italian lorries had serious safety flaws in more than 40 percent of cases.

By comparison the number of UK-registered vehicles failing safety tests was 37.5 percent.

The committee was reporting back on its investigation into the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA), charged with safety-testing lorries, buses and coaches.

The report concluded that the agency must be given additional powers and resources to get dangerous vehicles and drivers off the road.

As if the figures weren't bad enough for visiting HGVs, it's good to know that more than 1 in 3 UK HGVs is unsafe too. Nice

Also worth keeping in mind that you also need to watch out for left hand drive HGVs having bigger blind spots on the right that UK HGVs when passing them.

I narrowly escaped a French HGV a couple of years ago that overtook me and pulled in before getting passed, pinning me to railings on the edge of the road with just enough room to escape without being crushed. At night too. Not a nice memory, but at least I survived.

I was unlocking my bike last Thursday from the bike stands behind More London and an Eastern European Woman was unlocking hers nearby. I could see her looking at the "Danger! HGVs" sticker on the bike stand and she said, to me: "What is 'HGV'?" I explained it was a truck and the context for the campaign she said, "Maybe is not so good for foreigners. Maybe they should have a picture or something."

I think at least two of the people killed in London this year so far have been from eastern Europe, so I guess she has a point.

1. Eilidh Cairns, 5th February, Notting Hill Gate
   
2. Rebecca Goosen, 8th April, Old Street
   
3. Meryem Ozekman, 9th April, Elephant & Castle roundabout
   
4. Adrianna Skrzypiec, 15th May, Woolwich
   
5. Emma, 12th June, Charterhouse Street
   
6. Catriona Cockburn, 29th June, Oval
   
   

6 women killed so far in 09 listed above (from MT http://bit.ly/Se39b)

We will be erecting a ghost bike for Eilidh at Notting Hill on Sat 5th Sept at 11am.
This is to mark the spot of her tragic crash, and to warn all road users to take care, and action, to prevent this re-occuring.

We are very pleased to have Boris Johnson's reassurance that the ghost bike will not be removed.

Please come and spend a moment for Eilidh.
We will be having a drink at the Mitre afterwards.

In case anyone reading this hasn't seen the memorial ride video, it's here

It's tragic, but beautiful beyond words. It was an honour to be on that ride

Wow....

I only cycled through Notting Hill last week.
I'm sorry about your sister.

That Memorial ride is eye watering...

We are very pleased to have Boris Johnson's reassurance that the ghost bike will not be removed.
Wow... that's practically official backing.

And now there are pictures of people who have been in an accident? Is this a bit too far? Why would you take a photo of someone who's just been run over? I think this person died too.

The photos are there as I always carry a camera on my commute, normally they end up on Bristol Traffic as some of its satire. However, on this day, having just negotiated what is about the only hazardous junction on my 6 mile commute, I hear this awful screaming and turn back to find this woman has had one of her legs go under a lorry turning left.

The paramedics and ambulances were there in 3 minutes; the central hospital is just nearby, the local PCSOs comforting her until then. There was nothing else to do but document this, with photos that ended up on the local paper (evening post) and local TV news, in an article which worried about the whole problem of bike safety in the city. Because if Bristol is to become a "Cycling City", and the percentage of people cycling doubles, then without a 50% reduction in the risk of death/injury per journey, more people are going to get killed and injured.

Those photographs -awful that the incident was- have brought home what a terrible week it was in Bristol for left-turning Lorry/Cyclist collisions. I think it's a shame it took the photographs to for this to make the local TV, I think it is even more awful that one of our university lecturers died on his commute. Something needs to be done to stop this. We need to look at the root cause, and a key one is that lorries are driving round cities that weren't designed for them, with underpaid and half-asleep lorry drivers being directed by satnav systems with central monitoring making sure that they are on schedule. Better cyclist training -which I support, my seven year old got his level one proficiency last week- is not enough. The Bristol Cycling Campaign and Living Streets would both like 20mph speed limits, then there might be less pressure for bikes to get out the way of fast moving cars, and we stopped being pushed into bike lanes that are a fast route to A&E.

SteveL, Bristol Traffic

Such terribly sad news about the cyclist who was killed at Whitechapel today.
My thoughts are with her family and friends.

I spoke to a policeman a couple of weeks ago and asked him about the new HGV /Lorry blindspot mirrors that became mandatory in April this year. He didn't know what I was talking about and had not been told to check for them. What's the point of the new law if it's not being enforced at the ferry ports or on our streets. Todays loss can't be chalked up as just another one.

Feel free to write to Eva Rozmahelova at TFL about it:
LONDONSTREETS@tfl.gov.uk
mayor@london.gov.uk

She does actually reply.

How many deaths have we now this year, due to HGV's?

7 i think

Fucking hell! without stating the obvious, that's two short of once a month.... There has to be a better way.....

Yep it's fucking outrageous. I don't have an answer really, except banning lorries, but apparently that will sink the economy.

As the new cycle awareness posters are up I think we should have another go at a sticker campaign.
Any ideas?
The 'Danger HGV' stickers we're simple but not everyone knew that HGV = lorry. I know we don't want to scare people off bikes, yet we must raise awareness.TfL has cut their road safety budget by £10m pounds, axed the Commercial Vehicle Education Unit (CVEU), yet will put 16,000 new bikes on the road next year. How do we get all that on a sticker???
I think something asking for a ban on peak time lorry access. Any ideas?

Maybe do it like an equation:

-£10m -CVEU +16,000 =
and insert various anti Boris slogans at the end.

We are planning a small card with information for cyclists, basically an image of a lorry highlighting the danger zones - saying keep away from the front left side of lorries and a bit more info.
It needs to look good so any help with design would be very welcome.

Charlie - London Cycling Campaign

Danger! HGVs

[

Heavy goods vehicles should be banned from central London roads for two hours a day in a bid to cut the number of cyclists killed and injured, says the leader of Southwark Council.
](http://www.london-se1.co.uk/news/view/7204)

The Mayor's office is investigating a ban on larger lorries in central London amid questions over whether current HGV time restrictions in the capital are increasing risk to cyclists.

ban 'em full stop,

[

its a choice really isn't it:

city with HGVs allowed to roam

vs.

city / urban area without HGVs; cyclists afforded better chance of survival, more people employed, less emissions...

<<< HGVs outta Lundun-town - please >>>
](http://www.lfgss.com/thread117292-5.html#post3939474)

It's hard to decide which lorry-related thread to choose, but perhaps this one will do. I thought it might be worth posting this from the Road Danger Reduction Forum, on 'cyclists stay back' stickers:

http://rdrf.org.uk/2014/05/30/transport-for-london-show-contempt-for-danger-reduction-and-cycling/

Couldn't agree with that article more. I hate the proliferation of those stickers and the implication that the driver has no responsibility to look down the inside.

I've already had one (surprisingly restrained and calm) conversation with a cement truck that he should perhaps not have pulled up to, along side and then across me with his 20 tonnes of steel.

His response was that I should have seen the sticker on the rear of his vehicle.

I need to work on my "seeing 20 yards behind me and round a corner" vision.

That traffic droid bloke caught the aftermath of a lorry driver left- hooking cyclists in an ASL. Driver climbed out of the cab and said "I've got stickers!"

"We were in the bike box" said the cyclists.

"The what?" said the driver.

Stickers would be a good idea if they were in the cab saying 'watch out for cyclists'

Stickers would be a good idea if they were in the cab and able to be remotely detonated by cyclists
ftfy

It's Bill Stickers I feel sorry for, though[t].