Lambeth Bridge tipper truck fatality

[simonsch]

It's not the tipper trucks or the drivers. They are an odd shaped vehicle, they take odd lines through junctions / corners / roundabouts, because they have to. Cyclists need to learn to stay the hell away from them, don't go near them, give them a wide berth.

Seriously, it is the drivers. The other week I was on Parliament Square roundabout and a tipper truck driver, seeing a gap in the (car) traffic, careened across 3 lines of traffic and nearly took me out. I was two lanes over and well ahead of it. I have seen (from a safe distance) several other similar instances. If the truck cut across the poor lady today, there was very likely nothing she could do.

 

[Pale Rider]

It's not the tipper trucks or the drivers. They are an odd shaped vehicle, they take odd lines through junctions / corners / roundabouts, because they have to. Cyclists need to learn to stay the hell away from them, don't go near them, give them a wide berth.

Seriously, it is the drivers. The other week I was on Parliament Square roundabout and a tipper truck driver, seeing a gap in the (car) traffic, careened across 3 lines of traffic and nearly took me out. I was two lanes over and well ahead of it. I have seen (from a safe distance) several other similar instances. If the truck cut across the poor lady today, there was very likely nothing she could do.

I agree with both, keep well clear of tipper trucks, but if the ruddy thing makes a dart towards you there's not much you can do.

As a slow cyclist, I am content to slow even more or stop for a few seconds to keep well behind a tipper truck.

Works to a degree, but being slow reduces my ability to get out of the way if I am about to be wiped out from the side at a roundabout or from behind.

 

[simonsch]

As a slow cyclist, I am content to slow even more or stop for a few seconds to keep well behind a tipper truck.

As a moderately fast cyclist, me too.

 

[mjr]

Cyclists need to learn to stay the hell away from them, don't go near them, give them a wide berth.

We have learned this - on pain of deaths - and campaign for them to be restricted until such time they can be replaced with ones that are safe for use on modern urban streets.

 

[Sittingduck]

Poor woman.

About to leave the office and my route home takes me right through where it happened. The road is open and traffic returning to normal again now but not relishing riding through there, really.

Tippers shouldn't be on urban roads and some of the drivers are right see you next tuesdays, in my experience. Always give them a massively wide berth but it would be nice if we didn't have them anywhere near us. RIP to this morning's rider.

 

[J1888]

Some of those roundabouts on to bridges in town are very hairy - the other side of Lambeth bridge is a bit of a 'mare IMO, so much so that having used it to get to work when I first started commuting, I've now found a way not to negotiate it.

Poor woman and her family though, awful. Really spooks me to see the damaged bike.

 

[mr_cellophane]

TD posts a lot of videos of that roundabout. Sometimes it's cyclists, but mostly it's drivers at fault.
It is odd that a witness said the lorry cut across, but the driver wan't arrested.

 

[glenn forger]

It is odd that a witness said the lorry cut across, but the driver wan't arrested.

Doesn't mean a thing.

 

[Pale Rider]

TD posts a lot of videos of that roundabout. Sometimes it's cyclists, but mostly it's drivers at fault.
It is odd that a witness said the lorry cut across, but the driver wan't arrested.

I agree no arrest is odd, although there's nothing to stop the coppers nicking him/her later if they find evidence of an offence.

Also, automatic arrest when there's no evidence - at the time - of an offence is a controversial and complicated topic in policing.

The notion of an 'arrestable offence' appears to have been replaced by something which only a serving copper could understand.

Oh, and different police forces seem to use their power of arrest differently.

Hope that's clear.

 

[Drago]

Strewth, it was easy when there were arrestable offences and Section 25 offences. Now there's Socap, and anything, such as scratching your arse, is arrestable on a Thursday in July, but only if the Inspector had toast for breakfast. Only Labour could simplify something by making it more complicated.

But Paley is right, if they're confident of the identity of the driver there are numerous legal and procedural reasons why they might not get nicked at the first opportunity.

 

[Pale Rider]

Strewth, it was easy when there were arrestable offences and Section 25 offences. Now there's Socap, and anything, such as scratching your arse, is arrestable on a Thursday in July, but only if the Inspector had toast for breakfast. Only Labour could simplify something by making it more complicated.

But Paley is right, if they're confident of the identity of the driver there are numerous legal and procedural reasons why they might not get nicked at the first opportunity.

I'm bound to 'like' this post, but what I like more is the way you put it over.

 

[glenn forger]

How could any collision take place with such world-class facilities?

 

[Davidsw8]

My blood runs cold... I cycle this way every morning and was in this exact spot 10 mins before the accident. The huge and very sad irony is that this morning there were police standing at various points round here making sure drivers and cyclists were behaving!! Every morning, when I'm on this roundabout, I have to be wary of coaches and lorries pulling out of Horseferry Road, some of them look right at me and still pull out, but because I know they're likely to do this, I'm able to stop in time (touch wood).

This junction where this poor woman died was where I was rear-ended whilst stopped waiting to go on to the roundabout on my way home by a car driver 18 months ago.

I'm really very sick of all this now, I know many cyclists do many stupid things but honestly this was a question of WHEN it will happen and not IF at this junction There are SO many huge trucks going through the area constantly at the moment.

Another irony was that a couple of years ago, TFL underwent consultation for proposals to change this roundabout. The proposals seemed halfway decent (certainly a lot better than the current situation) but they were scrapped and no alternative solutions offered...

 

[jdtate101]

Given it's location outside of one of Britain's security services there's bound to be plenty of CCTV around there to ascertain exactly what happened. I thought Boris was going to Ban tippers from rush hour or something like that???

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

I thought Boris was going to Ban tippers from rush hour or something like that???

According to Stop Killing Cyclists, quoted in road.cc, :

Stop Killing Cyclists co-founder Donnachadh McCarthy called for the resignation of Martin Low, City Commissioner of Transportation at Westminster City Council, the borough in which the junction is located.​

McCarthy said: "[Transport for London] proposed some very modest and not even adequate safety improvements to this awful roundabout junction in October 2012.​

"Westminster City Council opposed even these safety improvements."​

Following consultation on the proposed changes, Transport for London said: "Having considered responses to consultation, and following concerns voiced by Westminster City Council, we have decided not to proceed with these planned initial improvements at Lambeth Bridge northern roundabout."​

McCarthy said: "What is actually needed is the total abolition of the roundabout, replacement with a traditional traffic light junction and the installation of protected left hand turns on each corner to ensure safety of pedestrians and cyclists.​