SMIDSY becoming enshrined in law.

[dawesome]

We have no evidence Daniel placed himself in danger so it's rather tasteless to lay the blame on him. It also ignores the fact that the lorry was indicating right, the decision not to charge means any cyclist killed by a lorry turning the opposite direction it was indicating may have their death treated the same way.

Catriona Patel was hit by a drunk driver chatting on a mobile, Eilidh Cairns by a driver with faulty eyesight who hit her from behind, Svetlana Tereschenko by a driver who was sat behind her for 30 seconds before pulling away and crushing her.

One of the accident reports concerns Paula User10571, 21, who died in April 2011 after colliding with a skip lorry.
RELATED ARTICLES

• The report shows Paula was cycling along a single carriageway on a clear, dry day when a skip lorry hit her.

The accident report says the driver “failed to look properly” and “failed to signal" or "gave misleading signal”, and that Paula was cycling in the “vehicle blind spot”.
Cyclists Daniel Cox, 28, Peter McGreal, 44, David Poblet, 20 and Gary Mason, 48 all died under similar circumstances with either a blind spot, a misleading signal or the driver’s failure to look properly named as a contributory factor in each accident.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring...n-two-thirds-of-cyclist-deaths-in-London.html

On 30 September 2008 the City of London Police carried out spot checks on HGVs as part of the Europe-wide Operation Mermaid2, which was intended to step up levels of enforcement of road safety laws in relation to lorries.

On this one day, 12 lorries were stopped randomly by City Police. Five of those lorries were involved in the construction work for the 2012 Olympics.

All of the twelve lorries were breaking the law in at least one way.

 

[machew]

If the lorry was indicating right and then turned left (as in the report) then the cyclist would have though it ok to filter up the inside.
If the advice now is ignore the indicators on a HGV and assume that it is turning left then what help is there for all the other road users

 

[PpPete]

No.

From the incidents you refer to above it sounds like just holding primary in front of an inattentive (or blind) driver may be as dangerous as filtering on the left? Is this really the case ?

 

[YahudaMoon]

Yes I get funny looks holding my primary in a queue of cars while other cyclists go up the left, but at least I'm (hopefully) avoiding any blind spots.

Same here. Its just not worth the risk only to be taken over by the same vehicle putting yourself in the danger zone yet again

 

[dawesome]

From the incidents you refer to above it sounds like just holding primary in front of an inattentive (or blind) driver may be as dangerous as filtering on the left? Is this really the case ?

I don't know where you get that from. Filtering on the left can be dangerous, it isn't a significant factor in recent HGV/cyclist fatalities. You can eliminate blind spots with £30 mirrors or a cctv set up that costs less than £100, as things stand everything is weighted against the cyclist, an unscrupulous lorry driver- like the 100% criminality rate of drivers exposed in Operation Mermaid- could even smash the mirrors off his vehicle then cite the "Blind Spot" excuse if they kill someone.

 

[PpPete]

I didnt "get it" from anywhere... I was asking a question of someone who seems particularly well-informed. After all I'd like any information out there that will help me stay alive.

 

[dawesome]

I beg your pardon. I think rather than try to find blame the elephant in the room is why we allow dirty great vehicles on the roads, that are involved in a disproportionate number of deaths, yet have these "blind spots" surrounding them that can be eliminated for £30, or £100 for a cctv system. In Svetlana's fatality the driver was chatting on a mobile and not indicating, she was nine feet in front of the lorry for half a minute and he still failed to see her, he claimed. Again, no charges. The driver that killed Daniel didn't even get the statutory fine for his missing mirror! Chillingly, it was his left-hand mirror.

 

[Alun]

I beg your pardon. I think rather than try to find blame the elephant in the room is why we allow dirty great vehicles on the roads, that are involved in a disproportionate number of deaths, yet have these "blind spots" surrounding them that can be eliminated for £30, or £100 for a cctv system. In Svetlana's fatality the driver was chatting on a mobile and not indicating, she was nine feet in front of the lorry for half a minute and he still failed to see her, he claimed. Again, no charges. The driver that killed Daniel didn't even get the statutory fine for his missing mirror! Chillingly, it was his left-hand mirror.

It used to be illegal for a driver to look at cctv whilst on public roads, has the law changed regarding this?

 

[dawesome]

It used to be illegal for a driver to look at cctv whilst on public roads, has the law changed regarding this?

It'snot only legal, it may become mandatory in the US in 2015.

http://www.therecruitgroup.com/hgv-news/new-law-set-to-cause-surge-in-reversing-camera-technology/

 

[Recycler]

Perhaps the best thing to do is to wait until the inquest has been held next week.
Rather than banging on about what the driver may or may not have done, it is best to wait for the evidence to come out instead of jumping to conclusions.

Meanwhile, nothing in the law has changed. Nothing at all, and to claim that SMIDSY's are now enshrined in law is simply untrue.

The advice to not filter on the left of large vehicles, without great care, still stands

 

[ufkacbln]

I
but... aren't most of these HGV related fatalities happening with bike filtering on left of HGV which then turns left ?
I'll happily be corrected on that,.

In some cases that is the case, but I have seen (and experienced) all too many cases where the HGV overtakes a cycits wiating at a junction, and placing the cyclists at risk through no fault of their own

 

[dawesome]

Ross Lydall- the lorry driver didn't even get fined for the missing mirror. The mirror was missing from the left side, where Daniel died:

http://twitter.com/#!/RossLydall

 

[Recycler]

I didn't know that the Evening Standard and twitter were now regarded as being reliable sources of forensic evidence. I'll wait until some reliable information is available.

 

[dawesome]

Mr Weatherley, of Bromley, Kent, appeared at Thames Magistrates’ Court on Friday (August 26) charged with using a goods vehicle without the obligatory mirrors.​

http://www.hackneygazette.co.uk/new...g_cyclist_death_at_dalston_junction_1_1011475

They dropped ALL charges.

 

[stowie]

I didn't know that the Evening Standard and twitter were now regarded as being reliable sources of forensic evidence. I'll wait until some reliable information is available.

From where? Are you going to ring the coroner or the magistrate?

Here in London there is a problem with cyclists and lorries. Cycle and Driver training is part of the equation, but surely having huge vehicles with large blind spots mixing it with cyclists and pedestrians at close quarters must be rectified. Especially since the equipment to greatly aid elimination of blind spots is readily available and not very expensive.

On a related note, the fact that many of the vehicles appear to have defects which make matters worse, or that sometimes the drivers are unfit to drive, and that 13% of drivers are uninsured on London roads means that we really need to start making sure those vehicles on our roads in a fit state and controlled by capable people. The numbers indicate that there is an ingrained problem and there appears to be a lack of will to rectify.