Update: London Cycling Campaign calls for protest as another London cyclist killed by lorry

Yet another person on a bike has died after being hit by a lorry in central London.

According to the BBC, the crash happened outside Holborn Underground station in High Holborn at about 9:25 this morning.

The victim, believed to be a man in his 40s, was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash, a police spokesman said.

The driver of the tipper lorry, a 51-year-old man, was arrested on suspicion of causing death by careless driving and is in police custody.

This fatality comes less than 72 hours after Friday evening's vigil for Philippine De Gerin-Ricard who was killed by a lorry just ten days ago on Cycle Superhighway 2 at Aldgate East tube while riding home.

The High Holborn area has recently been subject to a police blitz as officers have fined cyclists using the bus lane on Theobalds Road. The police-approved route involves, as cycling journalist Andy Waterman wrote today on his blog, "dropping onto Holborn and negotiating four lanes of traffic.

"I've done it every day since and it makes even me, an experienced cyclist nervous," writes Waterman. "Motorbikes buzz you, taxis rush red lights to get through and huge trucks obliterate the view. It's hellish."

London Cycling Campaign calls protest

London Cycling Campaign is organising a second #space4cycling protest ride on Tuesday 16 July at 6.30pm, starting at Russell Square (more details to be announced).

LCC chief executive Ashok Sinha said: "Three Londoners have now been killed in three weeks, all of them by lorries on busy roads that provide no dedicated space for cycling.

"Mayor Boris Johnson must take swift and radical steps to redesign our streets to make them safe and inviting for cycling.

"The evidence is clear: if he doesn't do this, then more Londoners will die needlessly cycling on our city streets."

Lorries

Lorries are disproportionately involved in crashes that kill or seriously injure cyclists, a problem that London mayor Boris Johnson acknowledged after the death of environmental scientist Katherine Giles on April 7. Ms Giles was killed when she was hit by a tipper truck in Westminster.

After that tragedy, London mayor Boris Johnson told ITV London News: “In future we are going to be stipulating that no HGV can enter London unless it meets cycle safety standards. One of the things that can be done is fitting of skirts to the sides of lorries and one of the big problems is that HGV drivers cannot see cyclists in the blind spot beside them.”

Those measures have not yet been implemented. In the meantime, several cyclists have been killed by lorries on London’s roads, including  Philippine De Gerin-Ricard and 41-year-old father Paul Hutcheson, who was run over just outside Lewisham town centre on on June 24.

A key recommendation of last week’s report from the Mayor’s Roads Task Force was that deliveries (that is, lorry movements) should be retimed outside peak hours with well-managed access for freight to support businesses, cut congestion and improve safety. During last year’s London Olympics, lorry movements were restricted, a measure that helped improve the road environment considerably.

Other major European cities, such as Paris already limit the times of day lorries can enter the city centre.

Better safety equipment and driver training would very likely benefit cyclists and pedestrians outside London too, as any haulage company that wanted to operate in the capital would have to upgrade its fleet.

The BBC reported this morning that a 79-year-old man, hit by a lorry in West Lothian, Scotland on July 11, died of his injuries in Edinburgh hospital yesterday.