London cyclist seriously injured in skip lorry collision

A cyclist sustained serious leg injuries at London Bridge yesterday morning following a collision involving a left-turning skip lorry – the latest in a long series of incidents in the capital involving such vehicles, many of which have resulted in bike riders losing their lives.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman, quoted in the London Evening Standard, said: "Police were called to reports of a collision between a lorry and a cyclist on Duke Street Hill at the junction with London Bridge Walk at 7.31am.

"The cyclist is thought to be a woman her in late 20s. She has been taken to a central London hospital with leg injuries which are not thought to be life-threatening".

According to a report on Letsrecycle.com, the vehicle is believed to belong to Greenwich-based business Toulouse Plant Hire, although the website received no response when it contacted the company for confirmation.

The livery of that lorry is similar to one that was involved in a crash in which 20-year-old Spanish national David Poblet lost his life in March 2011, with the vehicle pictured in an article on local news website LondonSE1.co.uk.

That fatal collision took place around half a mile the location of yesterday’s incident, at the junction of Tanner Street, Jamaica Road and Tooley Street.

In a blog post from May 2012 Mark Treasure, chair of the Cycling Embassy of Great Britain, suggests that the lorry involved in that incident may have been on its way to the site where The Shard was being built at the time.

It’s one of four deaths of cyclists in the area that he said may be related to construction of what is now the tallest building in London – although only one of those vehicles was actually confirmed as working on the site – and in his article, Treasure outlines his belief that tight schedules may have partly been to blame.

Earlier this week, we reported how the developers of what will be the tallest skyscraper across the Thames in the City of London, 22 Bishopsgate, are introducing a phased delivery plan that will seek to minimise movement of heavy vehicles during the daytime and thereby improve the safety of cyclists.

The move was welcomed by the London Cycling Campaign, although they also called for developers to use only ‘direct vision’ lorries, which give drivers improved visibility, during the building’s construction.