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RIP poor, poor woman. Our thoughts are with her family and friends.
Well done, those who are able to take flowers.
Some more comment here:
http://lcc.org.uk/articles/32-year-old-woman-dies-after-being-hit-by-lorry-in-camberwell -
Here's our piece on how the Traffic Commissioner should be able to take action
http://lcc.org.uk/articles/traffic-commissioner-responds-to-calls-for-action-against-suspect-lorry-operator -
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We have written to the traffic commissioner asking him to revoke the lorry owner's operating licence and ban the managers. Story and link to letter here:
http://lcc.org.uk/articles/lawless-and-selfish-lorry-driver-sentenced-to-3half-years-jail -
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So sad for this poor woman and everyone who knows her.
The lorry involved is a relatively small (18 ton) tipper carrying asphalt, the type often seen at roadworks. It is only a few years old and seems to have all the mirrors required but is not fitted with sideguards as will become compulsory from September. We cannot yet say if having sideguards would have made a difference in this crash.
more comment: http://lcc.org.uk/articles/woman-killed-after-collision-on-notorious-lambeth-bridge-roundabout -
The single witness that matters is the driver of the car. She told the Coroner's court that she didn't see the cyclist until after she had run into him, immediately in front of the driver's side of the car. The police consider that
"there is no evidence available to show Ms Purcell did nothing more than act as a careful and competent driver"
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It is possible that the police believe that a helmet could have prevented death so a charge of "causing death by dangerous driving" might not be appropriate. If they think that they should let the judge and jury examine the evidence and make a decision. It does not explain why there was no prosecution for careless driving.
http://lcc.org.uk/articles/dead-cyclists-family-let-down-at-every-stage-by-met-policeI have just seen the post from Spindrift sent while I was writing my comment. It is interesting. I do not know if Mrs Purcell is to blame or not but I think it is essential that her driving behaviour is examined and tested in a court of law.
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It is possible that the police believe that a helmet could have prevented death so a charge of "causing death by dangerous driving" might not be appropriate. If they think that they should let the judge and jury examine the evidence and make a decision. It does not explain why there was no prosecution for careless driving.
http://lcc.org.uk/articles/dead-cyclists-family-let-down-at-every-stage-by-met-police -
What do you think about that?
You could point out the the very latest Cycling Policy Paper from ROSPA (January 2015) does not support compulsory helmet wearing. On p.23 it says
RoSPA does not support calls for compulsory cycle helmet laws because it is not clear whether such a law would discourage some people from cycling, thereby losing the health and environmental benefits from cycling.
If RoSPA has doubts about the efficacy of forcing everyone to wear helmets what is the basis for this school trying to force children to wear helmets. Using frightening statistics without putting them into perspective and judging the effectiveness of what they propose does not encourage confidence in the management of this school.
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Those are some of the right questions and some of the answers we know others might take longer to come out. The lorry was less than 2 years old and according to the Evening Standard was fitted with camera systems which might have shown the cyclist and may give some evidence on the sequence of the crash events. The company is accredited to Bronze standard under FORS which ensures basic legal compliance by does not necessarily means it is compliant with the CLOCS standard. It would, however have to meet the Crossrail standard for sensors and sideguards. Press reports say the company does work for Crossrail, I haven't seen anything to say it was working on a Crossrail job last Thursday.
The CLOCS standard is set to bring all the lorries involved close to the best practice in the industry. We are pushing for improvements and for better technology. We would like to see the 'standard' improving as better equipment becomes available. To some extent the FORS system does this.
LCC maintain that the basic design of all these tipper/mixer/skip lorries is fundamentally un-fit for purpose. They are built to an "off-road" specification which means they are higher off the ground than need be and thier bumper etc are twice as high as those allowed for "on-road" vehicles. Getting that changed is not going to happen overnight, but some manufacturers are prepared to make better lorries, we need to convince/force the operators to take them up. The latest variant will be on show at the CLOCS conference on Thursday. I am also hoping that they will show results from the TfL trials of 'intelligent' sensors which will be much more effective than existing ones.
One of the big issues in last week's crash was the appalling road layout set up between the construction sites on either side. It is like cycling down a canyon with no escape. The unconstrained left turn would force lorries to keep to the extreme right side of the lane leaving a very wide gap. At the last minute the driver would have to swing across to the left to make the turn. There are no warning signs for cyclists/or drivers about the extreme hazard of this layout, neither are their signposted safer alternate routes. Last week's victim was new to cycling in this area, she shouldn't have been put at such a risk. -
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we just heard from our staff at a London College of Communication student event that there has been a collision between a lorry and cyclist at E&C roundabout (immediately outside the station).
Emergency services are there, but no more details.
Hoping this isn't as bad as I fear.
https://twitter.com/TfLTrafficNews/status/566182469884735488 -
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Twitter report of another tipper lorry / cyclist crash on Mile End road near Queen Mary College https://twitter.com/SamMiles87/status/562927021815517184
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So horrible. Our thoughts are with everyone who knew Akis and his family.
Road.cc have a simple report of the tragedy. -
Lorry was an old 32 ton roll-on roll-off waste container carrier. Just like the lorries involved in the fatalities at Ludgate Circus in April and October last year. It was loaded with scrap metal for re-cycling
http://s3.amazonaws.com/lcc_production_bucket/files/8409/original.jpg?1421867842 -
Harringey Independent now reporting that the driver involved has been arrested
http://www.haringeyindependent.co.uk/news/11736817.Man_arrested_after_fatal_road_traffic_collision/ -
Tragic news, all our thoughts with this woman's family and friends.
Correction to the Standard story, the crash happened at corner of Amhurst Park and Seven Sisters Road.
The crash involved an old 32 ton waste container lorry, loaded with scrap metal. The lorry was making a tight left turn from Seven Sister Rd into Amhurst Park. The police will be making a witness appeal, I'll post the details here when I see them. -
The video is of a prototype bike. Production bikes have disc brakes and belt drive chains. They have PD8 dyno hubs, geared bikes use the NuVinci 360 cvt hub.
An interesting bike for the price. The 'safety' feature is a dangerous joke. You get about 0.2 seconds warning before the lorry runs you down.
Have you considered cycle training?
The anti-theft network seems to rely on another Vanhawk bike passing by theives den to pick up a signal before the battery fails or is diconnected. -
Hoping the rider gets through.
From Twitter:met police confirm cyclist in accident at Chase Farm Hospital is
critical but stable in hospital - apologies for previous tweet on his
deathThe posting on the Stop Killing Cyclists page has also been corrected.
RIP, another tragic unnecessary death.
Truly horrific:
A Surrey police spokesman said: "A 34-year-old man from Walton-on-Thames has been arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving, driving whilst disqualified and driving with no insurance. I can confirm it is the van driver who has been arrested. He remains in custody at this time."
read the Standard update with caution . . .
and note the comment at the foot of the page:
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/i-held-her-head-in-my-arms-man-tells-of-failed-bid-to-save-life-of-female-cyclist-after-pileup-in-walton-10284227.html