Killed Cyclists in London - new map and spreadstheet

[redfalo]

Dear all,

I wanted to get a deeper understanding of cycling safety in London. This is why I’ve started to collect data on severe and fatal cycling accidents in London since 2006. I've created a spreadsheet on Google Docs and a map showing detailed information about 58 fatal cycling accidents that happened in Greater London since 2006. Data includes information on the type of vehicles involved.

I've summarised my thoughts about this sad topic on my cycling blog.

Comments much appreciated!

Take care
Olaf

 

[Alan Whicker]

Very interesting. Just wondering - why only since 2006?

 

[dellzeqq]

I imagine because it's a time-consuming thing.

Olaf - this is interesting, if sombre reading. Thankyou

 

[redfalo]

Thank you. Alan and Simon. Yes, it's very time consuming (and depressing). Additionally it is significantly harder to collect information on older accidents as a comparision of the offical numbers and my data shows. For 2009 I was able to find information for all but 2 accidents. For 2008 3 deaths are missing. I could not find anything about 5 accidents which happend in 2007 are about 10 that happened in 2006.

I'll try to get in touch with TfL and see if they can provide me the data. It's available for scientific purposes.

 

[RecordAceFromNew]

Olaf it is good that you are publishing this information, I am sure there are important lessons in the sobering statistics.

One phenomenon that jumps out at me is the ratio of female:male victims, it is nearly 3:2, which seems shockingly high since I am pretty sure there are far more male than female cyclists around in London.

I wonder if this is reflected nationally or internationally, whether there is any explanation, and what lessons might be learnt from it?

 

[Riverman]

Olaf it is good that you are publishing this information, I am sure there are important lessons in the sobering statistics.

One phenomenon that jumps out at me is the ratio of female:male victims, it is nearly 3:2, which seems shockingly high since I am pretty sure there are far more male than female cyclists around in London.

I wonder if this is reflected nationally or internationally, whether there is any explanation, and what lessons might be learnt from it?

Someone suggested previously that female cyclists may be more apprehensive at junctions, making them more vulnerable.

It may not be far fetched to suggest that the average body frame of women may play a role. The average male frame may just make men more visible to drivers.

 

[e-rider]

plenty of skip lorries on that list

also plenty of left turning incidents

all very sad indeed

 

[dellzeqq]

Someone suggested previously that female cyclists may be more apprehensive at junctions, making them more vulnerable.

It may not be far fetched to suggest that the average body frame of women may play a role. The average male frame may just make men more visible to drivers.

you make a decent point, but there's another possibility. We, by which I mean cyclists, tend to think of traffic as a kind of motiveless behemoth, spreading death and injury more or less at random. We recognise that certain types of truck, indeed certain companies, might cause more death than others, and we know that young men are more inclined to kill themselves and their passengers. What we don't do is to connect the perpetrator with the victim. We assume that there is no relation between the two.

I offer you the following. The perpetrators of violence are men - not in all cases, but in the overwhelming majority of cases. Women are disproportionately the victims of violence. Truck drivers kill women cyclists because they are women.

I am not suggesting that truck drivers see women and want them dead, but a lot of driving is about establishing the driver at the centre of his own universe - and that's a heedless thing, particularly if the driver is not blessed with a culture built on precaution or self-awareness.

 

[RecordAceFromNew]

This 2007 article showed up in a quick search, describing a Tfl study based on 1999 to 2004 statistics but kept secret found that collision with lorries accounted for 86% of female cyclist fatalities vs 50% for male, and suggesting male's RLJ and positioning could be a major reason for the difference.
I have no idea what the ratio of male to female cyclists is in London, but off the top of my head I would guess 4:1. If so women cyclists would be 6 TIMES more likely to be victims according to Olaf's statistics.

I must say I am shocked by the stats, and that whatever was done about it since then is still resulting in Olaf's statistics.

 

[Brains]

Olaf
Cyclist killed in Greenwich Park in 2009 was at the top (south end) of 'The Avenue' in the Park
If you google it you will see a small building on the north east side (public loos) . That's the spot.
Driver got off scott free despite doing over 40 mph in a 20mph zone and I understand was overtaking a car.

 

[Bikepeter]

Hi Everyone,

I recently had the misfortune of losing a friend in a cycle accident. She was run over by an HGV after being caught in its blind spot.

It has reopened the debate on cycle safety at crossroads especially busy ones in London about whether more can be done to help reduce the blind spot for HGV's when turning left.

This friend of mine is the latest casualty in the London bicycle fatalities so you can add it to your spreadsheet Olaf.

A cheap and effective way of doing this is using the trixiemirror which is attached to the street lights and is used to great effect in Switzerland & Germany already.

This mirrow is incredibly cheap and could be installed tomorrow.

To help with this debate and to try to stop any other lives from being ruined I am trying to make a difference to the safety of the streets.

For more information on this debate take a look at the below petition which has been created in the name of my deceased friend, and I would also be interested in hearing your comments about the suggestion of the trixiemirror and if you think it would save lives.

Thanks for reading.

Peter
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/boris-install-mirrors-that-save-cyclists-lives-petiti.html

 

[dellzeqq]

http://www.hackneygazette.co.uk/new...ipper_lorry_at_hackney_road_junction_1_944599

another off-site construction death in Hackney

 

[Red Light]

Here are some others that might be of use and interest:

http://citybeast.com/londoncyclists.html
http://innovate.direct.gov.uk/2009/03/10/pedalling-some-raw-data/
http://road.cc/content/news/2918-govt-data-leads-creation-map-uk-cycling-accidents

 

[redfalo]

Sadly, last Sunday, there was another fatality in Lambeth. A white van knocked down a female cyclist on Cavendish Road/Englewood Road / Poynders Road. It has not been reported by the media, yet. However, two eyewitnesses give appalling details on my blog:
http://cycling-intelligence.com/2011/08/02/cyclists’-death-trap-on-cycle-superhighway-in-lambeth/

Number of cyclists killed in London this year raises to 11, at least 2 more died just outside the borders of Greater London. http://cycling-intelligence.com/fatal-cycling-accidents-in-london/

Take care, please!

 

[dellzeqq]

this is a junction that Susie and I traverse regularly. I confess I can't work out precisely where it happened, but a right turn off Cavendish on to Abbeville would be a frightening proposition.

Traffic does go round the 90 degree bend at high speed - that's what the junction is designed for.