HGV Blind Spots

cheers guys and this should be made sticky i think

Hope you can find the post, Dammit - it's a great system!
It wasn't green... large grey truck, non-articulated, Cementex? Cementox? Cementor?

Cemex - the Mexican national cement maker. They are very, very good with their vehicles with regards to cyclists. The story behind why is tragic but a determined mother, some stock shares and an AGM are the main points of the story. A bit of googling should give you the details.

The story was on womans hour last saturday.

This was the case where the womans daughter (?) was killed/injured by a Cemex truck and she bought shares and forced the company to address the issue?

This was the case where the womans daughter (?) was killed/injured by a Cemex truck and she bought shares and forced the company to address the issue?

Yea that's the one

The death was captured on cctv - the lorry overtook the cyclist and turned left over her.

If i remember correctly the driver just got some points and a fine.

the visibility display is on at the lambeth country show this weekend, should anyone want to see this....

From the reports i have read, Cemex trucks were fitted with a sensor in the cabin to alert the driver when someone is undertaking. Is the external audiable alert, triggered by the indicator, a new system?

I think they are on both sides of the trucks. I was watching a driver in his rearview mirror as I ducked past a cement truck on the outside (he was almost stationary, plenty of space and options for bailing out if he moved). As soon as I got to his rear right corner, he snapped a glance in his rearview mirror straight at me.

Remember thinking that he knew I was there. No audible alerts for me though.

Pure speculation though.

Nicole Kidman on Acid?

Video about lorries and blindspots from TFL released today:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/roadusers/cycling/11687.aspx?lid=switcher

News link:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8153875.stm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPkbNFt5NuY

Met police cycle/HGV guide - I think we see a lot of route 3 in London
(thanks to Buffalo Bill finding this and putting it on Twitter this AM)

hmm, lots of films released today, plus 2 articles on BBC + ITV lunchtime news - finally.

Anything to raise public awareness of the dangers of doing stupid stuff around HGV's, the amount of people I see every single day almost getting killed by HGV drivers were it not for the common sense of the drivers (as opposed to the cyclists) in avoiding the cyclists whilst they pull stupid moves that put them in the middle of blindspots, or sit in positions on the road where they are effectively invisible to the driver.

On my commute yesterday, going past Kew Bridge, I was bumbling along and came up behind a HGV. The driver indicated left, and as the light started flashing, an audiable alarm could be heard (similar to when a HGV is reversing).

*Beep warning, left-turning lorry Beep warning, left-turning lorry Beep warning.....*

It was very clear and would make any road user instantly aware that a potentially dangerous manoeuvre was occuring. I think the vehicle's company was Cementex, but i didn't get a good look. Can't find any info about the system or company the vehicle belonged to, but will keep looking.

great idea, but very very useless if you don't speak English/deaf.

great idea, but very very useless if you don't speak English/deaf.

+1

More about visibility

Was thinking about this today cos i drive one of these and will be on the continent the summer so doing the whole pulling out the wrong way on the motorway.

The driving position is quite far back relative to the door windows and the blind spots can be massive. If you dont lean forwards on the motorway and look right "round the corner" it is easy to pull out on anyone. Anyone who tried to undertake me turning left could quite easily be fucked - and i try to be super vigilant cos i ride a bike.

Be careful i suppose is what im saying.

.......
The driving position is quite far back relative to the door windows and the blind spots can be massive. If you dont lean forwards on the motorway and look right "round the corner" it is easy to pull out on anyone. Anyone who tried to undertake me turning left could quite easily be fucked - and i try to be super vigilant cos i ride a bike.

Be careful i suppose is what im saying.
Driving one of those in Europe is great training. You need to take every opportunity to get a view of what is on your left and then think hard about what might be in the areas you cannot see. Sometimes you have to wait before making the move you want. It is exactly that level of observation that should be natural for lorry drivers working in urban streets where there are peds and cyclists all about.

Too true. I like the sign by the lights at the roundabout south of waterloo bridge that says "THINK BIKE", there should be more of those.

the really tiny sign that got dwafted by other sign and traffic lights nearby?

I never notice it for the past 12 months when I tend to cycle past that, and I do stop at red light, it was only recently I discovered it.

if I didn't see it, no one else can, it's too small.

Would that be at the brilliant set of lights where you have to be on the right hand side to turn left or on the left side in the bus depot to turn right towards the bridge?

I think the driver of the Cemex (aka ReadyMix) lorry that killed Cynthia's daughter was aquitted because he said he had a blindspot on the lorry and it wasn't his fault. It turned out that he had hit a cyclist previously and another driver working for the same subcontractor had been involved in a fatal.

As a result of Cythia's campaigning Cemex have done more than any other company to improve their vehicles and their drivers. Their lorries have sensors that tell the driver if someone is close to the left side and give out a warning when the left turn indicator is on. Some companies have a simpler system that just puts out the warning whenever the left indicator is on. Rebecca Goosens was killed by a cement lorry owned by London Concrete last year on Old St, that lorry had one of those warning systems. Either Rebecca did not hear it, or the lorry wasn't indicating before making the turn, or it was indicating but started the turn from so far out in the right hand lane that Rebecca did not consider it could possibly be turning left.

Would that be at the brilliant set of lights where you have to be on the right hand side to turn left or on the left side in the bus depot to turn right towards the bridge?

yes, just found it in Google Streetview, okay not that badly hidden but much too small to be notice, no one going to look at it, it's too small, nor even HGV;

But they also may need to pull right just to turn left...and are entirely within their rights to do so. wheres that right side, suicide sticker?

Anyone seen this on the BBC website?
**Cyclists warned of killer lorries **

A campaign launched by Transport for London (TfL) will warn cyclists about lorries - which caused more than half the city's bicycle deaths in 2008.
Nine of the 15 cyclists killed last year were hit by trucks.

I've sat behind a few HGVs in Glasgow that have the turning left/right warning. An increasing number have the TfL warning stickers to cyclists about the blind stops on the rear as well. I've been keeping a keen aye on what happens down there because it can only benefit cyclists everywhere.

yes, just found it in Google Streetview, okay not that badly hidden but much too small to be notice, no one going to look at it, it's too small, nor even HGV;

Ed, is it that tiny little yellow sign on the lampost? Man that's rubbish!

I used to cycle through that junction pretty regularly, I've been through there twice in the last couple of weeks as well and I have never noticed that sign before. How is anyone supposed to see that - it's a tiny sign that is maybe twenty yards from where the cars stop and by the looks of it, is obscured by the traffic lights anyway until you're moving, by which time you'll be busy looking at the road ahead and checking the other drivers around you aren't doing anything foolish.