glenn forger
Guest
http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news...rt-association-accused-of-victim-blaming.html
The Freight Trade Association is right that road users must ride or drive responsibly. Yes, there is a problem with some cyclists not obeying some traffic regulations.
However, every single time the police conduct tests on lorries in London, they find a swathe of the industry content to regularly break the law - overloaded, dodgy tachometers, dodgy safety features. When the City of London conducted spot checks on lorries in 2008, 100% (yes, that's right, 100%) of the lorries stopped at random were breaking the law in some way. Spot checks in Wales recently found 80% of all HGVs were breaking the law.
Or, let's just remember Mary Bowers, The Times journalist hit by a lorry in 2011. The driver was on the phone (hands-free) at the time and then "and then failed to put the handbrake on when she was trapped under his wheels". The driver had previously admitted a series of tachograph offences, "including driving a lorry for 20 hours in one day when the maximum is 9 hours". Jurors concluded he had been "too engrossed in a telephone conversation with a work colleague, on a hands-free mobile kit, when he knocked Ms Bowers off her bike". He then tried to deny he'd even been on the phone in the first place and subsequently pleaded guilty to (again!) "driving in excess of the permitted hours".
http://cyclelondoncity.blogspot.gr/2013/09/freight-association-declares-war-on.html
Unbelievably callous and unthinking.
Campaigners and cyclists have condemned the Freight Transport Association's stance on cyclist safety and accused the organisation of "victim blaming" after its Director of Policy said cyclists should take more responsibility for their own safety around lorries.
The FTA's Karen Dee's comments followed yesterday's announcement on London and UK-wide measures intended to crack down on lorry danger for cyclists and pedestrians.
The London Cycling Campaign (LCC) said the FTA's remark that there are better ways of achieving road safety and cyclists should obey the rules of the road, "inaccurately sought to apportion blame to cyclists for the deaths and injuries they suffer in collisions with lorries".
LCC Chief Executive Ashok Sinha said, "This is an unfounded exercise in victim-blaming by the FTA.
"There's clear evidence that cyclist competence and behaviour is not the chief contributory factor in the majority of deaths and injuries caused by collisions with lorries.
Read more at http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news...ed-of-victim-blaming.html#YmL7uoi6uVYmpShj.99
The FTA, whose members number 220,00 vehicles, represents the interests of road freight companies, and half of all lorries on UK roads.
The FTA have agreed to respond to a number of questions put to them by Cycling Weekly. We are currently awaiting that response.
Read more at http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news...ed-of-victim-blaming.html#YmL7uoi6uVYmpShj.99
The Freight Trade Association is right that road users must ride or drive responsibly. Yes, there is a problem with some cyclists not obeying some traffic regulations.
However, every single time the police conduct tests on lorries in London, they find a swathe of the industry content to regularly break the law - overloaded, dodgy tachometers, dodgy safety features. When the City of London conducted spot checks on lorries in 2008, 100% (yes, that's right, 100%) of the lorries stopped at random were breaking the law in some way. Spot checks in Wales recently found 80% of all HGVs were breaking the law.
Or, let's just remember Mary Bowers, The Times journalist hit by a lorry in 2011. The driver was on the phone (hands-free) at the time and then "and then failed to put the handbrake on when she was trapped under his wheels". The driver had previously admitted a series of tachograph offences, "including driving a lorry for 20 hours in one day when the maximum is 9 hours". Jurors concluded he had been "too engrossed in a telephone conversation with a work colleague, on a hands-free mobile kit, when he knocked Ms Bowers off her bike". He then tried to deny he'd even been on the phone in the first place and subsequently pleaded guilty to (again!) "driving in excess of the permitted hours".
http://cyclelondoncity.blogspot.gr/2013/09/freight-association-declares-war-on.html
Unbelievably callous and unthinking.