Victoria Embankment this morning (20th Oct 2009)

[joebe]

Anyone know what happened? It's was closed off and there was paramedic kit scattered all over the road and a bike propped up on the side though it didn't look damaged, so might be unrelated.

The closures were causing chaos everywhere so I'm guessing it was some sort of fatality. Not good.

 

[Origamist]

Bit of info here:

http://www.bikeradar.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12657385

 

[scouserinlondon]

Wonder if it was a motorbike. The thinning of cyclists on the road seems to trigger effing stupid overtaking from super-bike and scooter riders alike.

 

[Origamist]

Sadly, this was a cyclist fatality:

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/stand...t-killed-in-crash-call-for-improved-safety.do

 

[DJ]

Oh shoot.

 

[hackbike 666]

Oh god that's awful.

He said: "The Mayor wants thousands more people on their bikes but more cyclists will be killed. It's not like Holland where the roads are built for bicycles. In London drivers are getting more and more aggressive and it's dangerous for even experienced cyclists.

Some truth in this?

 

[tmcd35]

Wow, it says she was 'lit up like a christmas tree', certainly makes you stop and think. I was in the city the very next day picking up a new bike. I rode it back to Barking and never felt the traffic was that threatening. It's a horrid thing to happen, but it does remind us to perhaps be a little more on our guard when in heavy traffic.

 

[ttcycle]

This is really sad and awful news RIP

 

[CopperBrompton]

He said: "The Mayor wants thousands more people on their bikes but more cyclists will be killed. It's not like Holland where the roads are built for bicycles. In London drivers are getting more and more aggressive and it's dangerous for even experienced cyclists.

Some truth in this?

Not really. There have been 11 London deaths in cycling accidents this year, which is one a month out of how many million cycle journeys? For the UK as a whole, it's under 150 a year.

To put that in perspective, the number of deaths per year from all causes is over half a million. Of these, 183,000 (in 2005, which are the latest figures I can find) were from circulatory disease. Any bets on what proportion of those can be linked to lack of exercise?

Cycling is safer than not cycling.

 

[Tollers]

Saddening

I actually wrote a letter to the mayor regarding motorbikes and cycles having to fight for space with particular respect to Upper Thames Street and Embankment albeit heading the other direction. No reply yet.

I think I remember cycling past this incident after it happened. In the few hundred times i've commuted this route, ive seen at least 5 accidents and now 2 of them were 2 of the 11 fatalities in London this year

Time to re-think my route? This stretch of road is usually pretty quick, but i'm sure there is a fair amount of speeding going on and motorbikes are definitely aggressive along the river. Maybe, ill start using the slower route through the city.

Tollers

 

[hackbike 666]

Oh yeah that old chestnut Upper Thames Street/Lower Thames Street of which I don't use now.Awful road.Southwark Bridge wasn't much better either,for the fact when I used it there were always some sort of works going on+heavy lorries.

 

[Twenty Inch]

Anyone know whether this is a red route or bus lane? I'm thinking of Bojo's decision to let PTWs into bus lanes - he should be made aware of this fatality.

Poor girl. It was in the standard yesterday.

 

[Tollers]

It's not a bus lane. Mostly a redroute, but with a few scattered parking spaces and coach stops.

 

[joolsybools]

RIP

 

[HobbesChoice]

Terrible news