Disturbing comment from Coroner

[snorri]

The driver could not "reasonably have been expected" to see cyclist ahead of him.
http://www.roadjustice.org.uk/case-study/woman-cyclist-13th-die-year-london-41011

Am I missing something here?

 

[Peter Armstrong]

"could not have expected to see Ms Lee because she was so close to the front of the lorry at the lights. There is roughly a two-metre blindspot directly in front of lorries, the inquest heard"

 

[Peter Armstrong]

So my guess is she came up the side of the truck without being noticed in the mirrors then stopped in this "blind spot" horrible I know.

 

[slowmotion]

On the biggest trucks, I think the "blindspot" can extend as far as four metres.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

And yet a driver can reasonably be expected to drive at or over things and people immediately in front that he or she can't see?

 

[glenn forger]

So my guess is she came up the side of the truck without being noticed in the mirrors then stopped in this "blind spot" horrible I know.

No. There was a bus and taxi who had blocked the ASL. Deep Lee was ahead of the lorry and in plain view to anyone who checked ahead of their vehicle before setting off, she would also have been plainly visible to anyone who had bothered to spend £20 on a mirror that eradicated the blind spot. The lorry driver Gibbs did neither and killed her, the wheel went over her head, then the police officer in court noted she had no helmet on or hi vis, neither of which would have made a scrap of difference to a driver who didn't bother to check the dirty great six foot blind spot in front of his vehicle.

The coroner's and copper's remarks are both symptomatic of the casual idiocy among the judicial system when a cyclists gets killed.

 

[oldstrath]

"could not have expected to see Ms Lee because she was so close to the front of the lorry at the lights. There is roughly a two-metre blindspot directly in front of lorries, the inquest heard"

So we know that lorry drivers cannot see something just in front of their vehicle, but apparent there is no problem letting these things on the road. Just how bonkers are we?

 

[Peter Armstrong]

Yeah that's proper bonkers, something should be done, a law to modify all trucks with mirrors so they can see their blind spits then no-one can say thing like that?

 

[simon.r]

Yeah that's proper bonkers, something should be done, a law to modify all trucks with mirrors so they can see their blind spits then no-one can say thing like that?

This document (see section 3 re. mirrors) is, I believe close to becoming endosred / required ?? by the FTA I+ don't know how widespread the influence of the FTA is and there are also vehicles which are exempt from the recommendations of the report, but it's a step in the right direction.

 

[Ern1e]

IMHO all LGV's should be fitted with the mirror above the centre of the windscreen by all operators has an health and saftey issue, our health and saftey that is ! Lets be realistic though until it is made law for these items to be fitted it just ain't goin to happen !! so more peolple get injured or even worse killed.

 

[stowie]

Yeah that's proper bonkers, something should be done, a law to modify all trucks with mirrors so they can see their blind spits then no-one can say thing like that?

I seem to remember a case of a HGV driver being found not guilty after running down a pedestrian on a crossing because he had stopped at the line and therefore the blind spot at the front obscured the crossing. It didn't appear to be thought that, if an HGV has a blind spot in front then stopping the lorry so they can see the crossing might be wise.

Blind spots on any vehicle are treated like a force of nature, a sad fact of life like freak weather accidents. We crowd into busy city streets and then allow huge machines which are operated half blind to mix it in as well. The design, size and visibility of lorries are not laws of nature, they are decisions made by designers, manufacturers and regulators. If the blind spot couldn't be used as a reason for "not seeing" someone and in fact was a cue to prosecute the operator for substandard equipment then I would imagine resolution would be found quite swiftly.

 

[theclaud]

I seem to remember a case of a HGV driver being found not guilty after running down a pedestrian on a crossing because he had stopped at the line and therefore the blind spot at the front obscured the crossing. It didn't appear to be thought that, if an HGV has a blind spot in front then stopping the lorry so they can see the crossing might be wise.

Blind spots on any vehicle are treated like a force of nature, a sad fact of life like freak weather accidents. We crowd into busy city streets and then allow huge machines which are operated half blind to mix it in as well. The design, size and visibility of lorries are not laws of nature, they are decisions made by designers, manufacturers and regulators. If the blind spot couldn't be used as a reason for "not seeing" someone and in fact was a cue to prosecute the operator for substandard equipment then I would imagine resolution would be found quite swiftly.

Can I have some sort of super-Like button for this, please?

 

[ufkacbln]

.... And according to the Police Fixies are also dangerous!

He added: “Ms Lee had a fixed gear bike. She wouldn’t have moved off quickly. If it had been a geared bike she might have got away quicker.”

 

[Jimmy Doug]

.... And according to the Police Fixies are also dangerous!

This could become another instance of an investigator/teacher/celebrity... who knows nothing about cycling giving his/her opinion on the matter and then starting an urban myth about cycle safety. I don't want to start another helmet debate, but we have seen that before somewhere. I can see in a few years time reports of accidents like bearing the comment Mr/Ms X, who was riding a fixie at the time ....

 

[Ern1e]

Further to my previous post and having had a think on it ! why can they not lower the cab height's so that the driver sits lower down ? truck cabs these days seem to me to be climbing skywards,instead of a cab over why not a cab infront thus if driver is sat lower the blind stop would be about the same as per a car and an other plus point would be the driver would also be more vunerable so I think it may just make them think.