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Cyclist escapes with his life when Boris Bike is crushed under wheels of cement mixer

Left-turning cyclist sees his rental bike mashed under wheels of HGV

A cyclist whose Boris bike was crushed under a cement lorry as he turned left on a London street was lucky to escape with his life yesterday.

The male rider was hit at 2.30pm on the junction between Southwark Street and Bridge Road in south London.

The cyclist appeared to be turning into a blue painted cycle lane when he was hit.

Donnachadh McCarthy, spokesman for cycling campaign group Stop Killing Cyclists, told the Evening Standard that the accident spot was a "classic junction" for cycling crashes because the road does not have a protected left hand turn.

It’s the same spot as where in 2011 Mayor of London Boris Johnson stopped to help a fellow cyclist who had been knocked off his bike and injured when a minicab driver opened his car door into his path.

The incident took place on in Southwark Street as Mr Johnson returned – on a Boris Bike, naturally – to City Hall following a meeting in the West End.

Mr Johnson telephoned for an ambulance and remained with the victim until emergency services arrived at the scene.

Last year we reported how the driver of a lorry that last year crushed a cyclist who was riding a Boris bike in London, leaving him with serious injuries to his head, chest and pelvis, was fined a total of £620 and banned from driving for six months. 

Anthony Farmer, aged 44 and from Dagenham, was fined £420 at Highbury Magistrates Court £420 and given nine penalty points for careless driving, and a separate £200 fine for driving a vehicle in a dangerous condition.

The male cyclist aged in his 20s continues to receive medical treatment for his injuries.

And just last month Claire Hitier-Abadie, who was 36, was killed by a vehicle involved in Crossrail works near Victoria Station while riding a Boris Bike on Thursday morning, making her the second cyclist to be killed while using one of the ubiquitous rental bikes.

The French-born woman moved to London last year from Paris, with her husband and two children.

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5 comments

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Kim | 9 years ago
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It is the same story again and again, when are we going to make our cities safe for people? It is not just cyclists, pedestrians are being killed too, we have to restrict HGVs and provide better infrastructure.

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congokid replied to Kim | 9 years ago
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Kim wrote:

It is the same story again and again, when are we going to make our cities safe for people? It is not just cyclists, pedestrians are being killed too, we have to restrict HGVs and provide better infrastructure.

You're right.

Never mind the lorries themselves, the legislators appear to have a massive blind spot when it comes to the danger posed by large vehicles with bad driver visibility being operated in public spaces.

Even building sites have more stringent regulations and procedures to protect the vulnerable than our roads do.

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ron611087 replied to congokid | 9 years ago
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congokid wrote:

Even building sites have more stringent regulations and procedures to protect the vulnerable than our roads do.

That's because building sites are held accountable for onsite casualties. There's no accountability on roads. With no witness or video evidence "I didn't see him/her" suffices as an excuse.

Avatar
mrmo replied to ron611087 | 9 years ago
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ron611087 wrote:
congokid wrote:

Even building sites have more stringent regulations and procedures to protect the vulnerable than our roads do.

That's because building sites are held accountable for onsite casualties. There's no accountability on roads. With no witness or video evidence "I didn't see him/her" suffices as an excuse.

As most deaths are caused by HGVs i sometimes think, maybe, the HSE should be involved, these effectively workplace accidents.

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zanf | 9 years ago
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You really need to proofread your articles a bit more:

Quote:

The incident took place on in Southwark Street as Mr Johnson returned

Quote:

Last year we reported how the driver of a lorry that last year

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