See Me Save Me founder running marathon to raise funds for safety campaign

Kate Cairns, whose sister Eilidh was killed by a lorry while cycling to work in London in 2009, will this weekend take part in the Kielder Marathon to raise money for the See Me Save Me campaign she founded in the wake of her sister’s death.

Eilidh Cairns, who worked as a TV producer, was 30 when she was killed after being struck from behind by a lorry driven by Joao Lopes. The only charge he ever faced in connection with her death was driving with uncorrected defective vision, for which he received three points on his licence and a fine of £200. He was later jailed for killing an elderly pedestrian.

Eilidh’s sister, Kate, set-up the See Me Save Me campaign with her mother in the wake of her sister’s death. Its aim is to eliminate heavy goods vehicle (HGV) drivers’ blind spots and improve driver training to increase awareness of vulnerable road users.

Kate told the Northumberland Gazette:

“For the last two years, I’ve worked with industry leaders on raising awareness of this issue and in finding solutions. The result has been a ground-breaking new national standard to manage risk of construction HGVs, the Construction Logistics and Cyclist Safety (CLOCS) scheme. We have done the hard work on designing the standard, now it needs to be adopted by every local authority and HGV operator.”

She emphasised that it is not purely a London issue, pointing out that there has even been a proliferation of HGVs passing through small rural villages, adding: “this is a national issue – vehicles are not confined within counties.”

Last month, after new rules came into effect demanding that all HGVs operating in London be fitted with safety equipment, Kate said that on top of the new measures she wanted to see mandatory specifications in lorry cab designs that would increase visibility and reduce blind spots. “We do feel like we have to keep going,” she said. “We are still going to be calling for compulsory driver training and a specialist investigatory body. There’s still a long way to go.”

Kate Cairns’ Just Giving page can be found here.