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Broken bike (CC licensed image by garryknight, www.flickr.com)Boris bike rider killed in collision with tipper lorry in London this morning
A female cyclist in her 30s has died this morning after a collision with a tipper lorry in London - the third London cyclist to die in a collision with such a vehicle this year.
A picture in the London Evening Standard shows that lorry involved appears to be a tipper truck, a type of vehicle that has proved particularly lethal to the capital's cyclists in recent years.
The Standard reports that the woman was riding a London Cycle Hire 'Boris Bike', making her the second cyclist to be killed while using one of the ubiquitous rental bikes.
The victim was later named as Claire Hitier-Abadie, 36.
The Metropolitan Police reports that officers were called at 07:59 to reports of a cyclist in collision with lorry on Victoria Street, SW1, near to Victoria Palace.
Officers, London Ambulance Service and London Fire Brigade attended and found an unresponsive woman in her 30s. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Officers from Westminster are currently investigating. Enquires continue.
Leon Daniels, TfL’s managing director of surface transport, said: "We are deeply saddened that a female cyclist using a Barclays Cycle Hire bike has lost their life after a collision with an HGV at the junction of Victoria Street and Bressenden Place this morning.
"We will assist in a full investigation by the police into the incident and our sympathies are with the family and friends."
In January this year 29-year old physiotherapist Stephanie Turner died in a collision with a tipper lorry in Seven Sisters, and earlier this month 34-year old Akis Kollaros, was killed in collision with a tipper lorry in Homerton High Street.
In April 2013 climate scientist, Dr Katharine Giles was killed in a collision with a tipper truck on Victoria Street at its junction with Palace Street.
The first cyclist to die while riding a Boris bike, Philippine De Gerin-Ricard, was also killed in a collision with a tipper truck in July 2013.
From September London's Safer Lorry Scheme will ban lorries from the city's street's that are not fitted with safety equipment such as sideguards designed to offer some measure of protection to cyclists and pedestrians - the scheme is particularly aimed at construction lorries cush as tipper trucks which are currently exempt from having to fit such equipment.
On Monday the Metropolitan Police launched the latest phase of its Operation Safeway road safety campaign in response to a threefold year-on-year rise in the number of road deaths on London's streets in the opening weeks of 2015.
John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.
He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.
Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.
John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.
He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.
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55 comments
In 2009, 10 of the 13 cycling fatalities in London were women which prompted this article in The Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/may/21/women-cyclists-most-accidents
Personally I think it's difficult to explain. There would need to be a fatal accident enquiry into every death, weighing up a multitude of factors.
At the end of the day, every cyclist is at risk, regardless of their gender.
In 2009, 10 of the 13 cycling fatalities in London were women which prompted this article in The Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/may/21/women-cyclists-most-accidents
Firstly, RIP to the lady concerned, and condolences to her family. I don't know what the above stat means. Could it be that in an attempt to disassociate themselves from the (over assertive?) MAMIL culture as perceived by some, there are some riders who are not assertive enough, or simply believe that bad things happen only to others?
I know that so called victim blaming is a contentious subject, and I make no comment in that regard on this particular case, about which I know nothing other than what I have read here. However the fact remains that TFL now collect data from such incidents as to whether the rider was wearing headphones. I ride in London regularly, and rode down Victoria Street yesterday morning. IMHO, riding with headphones is dumb. Would you ride in a BLINDFOLD?? No. Just because it's not illegal doesn't make it a good idea. I stress again that this para is not a comment on this case. But it makes sense to me to make use of all one's senses to maximise safety. It feels like I've strayed onto the wrong thread, but I'd rather not see any more headlines that start, "Another cyclist killed," RIP. Ride safely all of you.
Its circumstance though. I ride with headphones all the time, it actually makes me more vigilant. However that said not sure I would ride with them in Central London
I'm the same - my commute is 75% quiet & leafy and boring so I wear headphones (where I still retain the vast majority of my hearing anyway, they're not noise blocking) and 25% city centre - where I keep them off.
I do believe I'm just as vigilant in both scenarios.
I don't believe that many drivers are equally as vigilant, however.
Sincere condolences to the family of the lady. There but for the grace of god go any of us.
RIDING with a BLINDFOLD on is CLEARLY illegal.
Headphones are irrelevant. Quite apart from the fact that you can hear a lorry with or without them on, they have nothing to do with the danger from trucks turning across cyclists - the most common cause of fatalities.
If you don't want to wear them don't but don't distract from the real dangers (plus inconsistency with radios in cars, deaf cyclists, etc etc etc etc)
I agree with you completely about not victim blaming, but I don't know that this is called for.
There are two questions:
1) is 10 out of 13 enough to say that it's an unlikely ratio due to chance?
2) if the answer to #1 is yes, then is there some common factor
Some people have speculated that female cyclists are more likely to be less "macho" than male cyclists and to not take the recommended Bikeability primary position in lanes, so more likely to be inside these vehicles.
I am not sure it's the same as victim blaming. I think the point if I understand it right is an interesting one. Is there something about the way that a lot of women ride in traffic different perhaps to the way that men might.
I used to assess advanced drivers. I was a professional driver for years. What I know is that men an women in gerneral approach driving differently. Male drivers are generally more assertive on the road. Not always a good thing. It's downside if taken too far can be an aggressive approach. Women tend to be less assertive.
In cycling terms and as a vulnerable road user assertive is better. Occupy that space, make it clear you are taking the lane et etc.
I don't care how many motorists think is should be in the cycle lane, it's going up the inside of stationary traffic and I am just not going to do that. I'll overtake on the outside or hold my space in the lane.
Maybe if you are less assertive you do end up being in spaces where someone wants the cyclist to be and has maked for them to be but where it just isn't safe to be. I have no evidence of this but maybe a higher level of physicality (speed acceleration) enables cyclists to be more assertive as well.
I don't think it's a silly question and it's not victim blaming. It's an attempt to understand.
Idiot.
Dork! and to the person that 'liked' it ...
Why dork? We all share the same goal for these terrible deaths to be minimised. I wish there were none. We should leave no stone unturned in considering how to do this. So that's the goal, but what are the facts.
1- women make up a minority of cyclists in London. I think I once saw it being about 15%.
2- the % of cyclists killed in London is disportionately women.
There is not an even distribution in deaths between men and women. In fact it is dramatically skewed.
As a father of a cycling daughter, husband of a cycling wife, friend of many cycling women I would love for us to understand why there is this difference. So we can do all we can to stop it.
This is not victim blaming.
This is not sexist.
This is rationale.
Any thoughts in why it is? Do drivers take less care with women? (There is evidence to the contrary); are there differences in how men and women cycling and position themselves on the road? Does the fact women are on average shorter make then harder to see? Who knows ...: but if we can have a rationale discussion on the same we can then help address the causes of this disparity
So very saddened by this news. I'm very much of the opinion that, firstly, these trucks are too 'easy' to drive. The driver sits up high in comfort with power steering and easy gear controls and I can't help thinking it gives the driver a skewed sense of how powerful, large and heavy the vehicle is they are driving in. The speeds that I see these kinds of vehicles driven at, especially when they are empty, are frightening. Secondly I just can't understand why we aren't exploring banning these larger vehicles from the city streets at rush hour. Why can't they come in over night to do their loading and unloading?
Because they're servicing building sites.
So service building sites at night. I can't believe whatever they are delivering or taking away is that time sensitive and if it is manage the process better!
HGVs over 18 tonnes are banned from London 9pm to 7am during the week and after 1pm on Saturdays. http://www.londoncouncils.gov.uk/services/londonlorrycontrol/about.htm
So they are coming into London at the same time as morning rush hour traffic.
During the Olympics this was relaxed with no problems, so it should be looked at again allowing night time deliveries and servicing building sites not in residential areas (City and West End in particular).
Very sad news.
I'm not normally a banning kind of person, but another tipper truck?
they should consider having the police pay special attention to them by which I mean start to target them for vehicle and driver inspection. They may catch some rogues and some dodgy vehicles, and I'm sure if they looked, some very dodgy driving. But the main purpose would be to put them on notice to really mind their Ps&Qs.
After so many incedents, why aren't these tipper truck drivers driving with more care?
RIP and condolonces to the victim's friends and family.
Why should they, what's the incentive?
I'm sure they don't head out with the intention of killing someone but lets face it, the quicker they are the more they are paid, combine that with the fact the repercussions for killing someone with a vehicle are minimal at best, then throw everything together in a congested environment and we have a recipe for a meat grinder.
At no point does it ever enter a drivers mind "hang on a second, if I kill someone I'll never work/drive again. I may go to prison and my life will be changed forever" compare that with other industrial environments, safety is very much on the agenda (wasn't always the case).
Didn't 10 people die last weekend on the roads? if we lost 1 a month to lifts or blue cheese I'm pretty sure something would be done about it.
It saddens me that death on the roads seems to be the acceptable cost of progress.
Anyway. RIP and condolences to all that knew her.
Only way to get action these days is to link it to terrorism....Maybe accuse Tipper Drivers of being part of ISIL. (Apologies I am aware a death is involved, but the whole situation is becoming farcical)
Even this morning i saw a tipper driver distract himself by lighting a fag whilst approaching elephant and castle roundabout. I couldn't believe it, and now i come to work and read another story about tipper trucks killing cyclists. Which one of us is next?
Same here, turning from Fetter Lane onto Fleet St although it was already lit. On the (handsfree) phone as well. Not looking anywhere.
Report him to his employer for smoking in his workplace if you've got the reg number
Victoria Street again, too. Awful.
Less than 2 years since:
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/cyclist-death-woman-killed-in-vict...
Tipper truck again. Rest in peace.
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/cyclist-dies-after-being-hit-by-lor...
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