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Fire engine and cyclist in Brixton (via X Twitter)Shocking footage shows fire engine driver responding to emergency call hitting cyclist
Shocking footage has emerged of the moment the driver of a fire engine that went through a red light as it responded to an emergency call crashed into a cyclist at a crossroads in South London. The rider sustained a head injury, which police have said is non-life threatening.
The incident happened on Wednesday morning at the junction of Coldharbour Lane and Atlantic Road close to Brixton railway station.
CCTV footage posted to the social network X, formerly Twitter, and incorrectly showing the location as Peckham rather than Brixton, shows the cyclist riding through the junction on a green light just as the driver of the fire engine, which had its lights flashing and siren on, comes through at speed on a red light.
Oh crap.
The comments 🤮
People assuming and starting as fact the cyclist had head phones - when there's no way you can see from that grainy footage.
Also, if the light was red for the fire engine then it's still the DRIVER'S responsibilty to check it's safe to run it https://t.co/PexqgXr9vB
— Stan (@geckobike) August 26, 2023
The cyclist, said to be a man aged in his 50s, was treated at the scene by paramedics before being taken to hospital by the London Ambulance Service (LAS).
London Fire Brigade and the Metropolitan Police Service both said on Wednesday that they were investigating the incident.
In a statement today, the Metropolitan Police Service told road.cc that they were called to the incident at 11:48hrs on Wednesday 23 August.
“The cyclist, aged around 50s, had suffered a head injury,” the statement said. “He was taken by LAS to a south London hospital. His condition is not life threatening.
“There were no other reported injuries and no arrests.
“Anyone who witnessed this incident or has dash-cam footage should call police on 101 or Tweet @MetCC quoting 2990/23AUG.”
Brixton Fire Station is located on Gresham Road, a short distance from where the crash happened.
The street layout and various railway lines running along viaducts mean that fire engines responding to emergency calls in areas to the south such as Brixton Hill and Brockwell Park would typically be driven along Coldharbour Lane.
The location of the collision, close to Brixton Market, is lined with shops and bars, and there is often heavy pedestrian footfall in the area, and the layout of the junction and surrounding buildings means that sightlines can often be blocked.
The video also shows one man crossing Coldharbour Lane on foot just before the fire engine appears, apparently oblivious to its approach.
According to the London Evening Standard, one eyewitness to the crash said that fire engines “come so fast up this road.”
Speaking about the cyclist, he said: “It was a green light and I don’t think he saw it [the fire engine] coming.”
Legislation allows certain exemptions from road traffic laws to drivers of emergency vehicles carrying out their duties, such as responding to a 999 call.
In guidance published on its website, the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) outlines that among other things, emergency vehicles are exempt from “observing speed limit,” “observing keep left or keep right signs,” and “complying with traffic lights, including pedestrian controlled crossings.”
However, the NFCC goes on to say: “Even where exemption exists, personnel must always give due regard to the way they drive, which should not put other road users or members of the public at a risk that cannot be justified.
“When exercising the exemption to pass a red traffic light, drivers of emergency vehicles should avoid causing a member of the public to contravene the red light. The public do not have an exemption in law to contravene red traffic lights.
“Only drivers who are trained to the appropriate standard are entitled to make use of exemptions,” it adds. “It is essential that the exemptions used are appropriate and their use in specific circumstances can be justified.”
On its website, the Occupational Road Safety Alliance highlights that while drivers of emergency vehicles are allowed to ignore red traffic lights, they “are told to treat a red light as a ‘give way’ sign, which means that they approach with caution and don’t pass through until they are sure the way is clear.
“When approaching red lights, emergency vehicles should use sirens and lights to warn the traffic ahead that they are approaching and give others the time to get out of the way or stop,” it adds.
In its statement released after the crash in Brixton on Wednesday, London Fire Brigade said: “At around 11.45am, a fire engine was involved in a collision with a cyclist at the junction of Coldharbour Lane and Atlantic Road in Brixton.
“The cyclist was treated on scene and taken to hospital by the London Ambulance Service.
“The fire engine was responding to an emergency call at the time of the incident. The circumstances surrounding the collision are under investigation.”
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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65 comments
Yup. I think that is fair. Driver probably should have approached the lights more slowly but the cyclist also doesn't appear to have been paying enough attention to their surroundings.
Dgaf what you think "morally wrong " it's legally wrong that's the trump card here, flashing lights and sirens does not get to mean you plough through a red into a car/bike/ped
You might want to read this webpage.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-highway-code/light-signals-controlling-t...
Especially this bit:
"GREEN means you may go on if the way is clear."
The camera angle, the way was not clear.
If the cyclist had looked when the road to their left became sighted, they would have had time to reduce their speed.
Where have I said that there is no fault on the driver?
I believe that I also extended fault to any crew member that was spotting.
Now ... your entirely entitled to your own opinion on this, but personally I tend to stop when I see vehicles barrelling towards me.
I've done my time in ICU.
I've got my life changing injuries due to a careless driver.
I know how it feels to not be able to walk for months and need a stick for the rest of my life.
Right of way is all very good, but I'm always reminded of this conversation:
MISTER PROSSER:
Have you any idea how much damage that bulldozer would suffer if I just let it roll straight over you?
ARTHUR DENT:
How much?
MISTER PROSSER
None at all!
Oh dear, the old 'might is right' argument.
Nah ... not really.
There comes a point when you do have to remember that you are 100kgs of soft squidgy stuff that breaks really easily.
Ideal world, we shouldn't be subjected to intimidation from other road users, and other road users *should* drive correctly...
But ...
This isn't the ideal world, and being right won't mean shit to your loved ones as they stand around your hospital bed, or have to identify your remains.
Self preservation should always be on your mind.
"You would like to think that the cyclist would have heard the sirens and would have been slowing down"
Wow! Victim blaming at its finest.
It's really not, OFG has stated that they believe that the driver is at fault, it's not victim blaming to suggest that the cyclist should listen out for emergency sirens and slow down and check it's safe before riding across a blind junction, it's common sense.
Yes it is. Its saying sorry its your fault you got hit cos even though you obeyed the traffic light and expected other to follow suite you are still partially to blame for someone tw@tting you.
Its a heavily built up area. In a noisy City. A City where Sirens are common place from all directions. Quite how the cyclist is expected to know which direction they were coming from or if they were even going to intersect with his route.
Its easy to say the cyclist should of heard it but they are so common place they become almost background noise.
If I wanted to be really critical, I could say that since this junction has a pelican crossing, what if a elderly or hard of hearing pedestrian was crossing at the time? The light was red for the Fire truck. The left hand crossing could have been in use yet the driver approached the junction way to fast to react to that eventuality were it to have been present.
If you watch the clip, how many other people react to the truck before it comes into view? Its almost as if everyone is oblivious to its presence bar one person stood on the corner.
Emergency sirens are deliberately designed (as I understand it) not to be easy to pin down in terms of where they're coming from so that all road users take care when they hear them. Every time I hear a siren I slow down and check 360° around me until I have ascertained where it's coming from and whether it's safe for me to proceed. I certainly don't carry on blithely riding across a blind junction. Hey ho, if it's victim blaming to state that the victim should have slowed down and checked when crossing a blind junction with a clearly audible fire engine approaching then I'm a victim blamer, I can live with that.
And as I say, everyone seems to act as though nothing is happening. When its a constant noise, people become numb to the constant sound of sirens. If everyone stopped every time they heard a siren somewhere in the local area, regardless if they could judge the direction of it or not then the place would grind to a halt. Its all well and good saying people should etc etc, lets live in the REAL world for a moment. People just get so used to it they learn to ignore it. Thats human nature.
Well I live in the real world, indeed the part of the real world where this incident took place, and I've been riding around there for 30+ years, I still manage to slow down and check when I hear a siren, it's not hard.
Absolutely this. I have impaired hearing in one ear and it makes it difficult for me to 'place' sound. I still manage to react appropriately to sirens though.
"I still manage to slow down and check when I hear a siren, it's not hard."
Maybe it is for the cyclist. If youre deaf its extremely hard id say.
Did someone say we should stop on hearing a siren? It would be a silly thing to do IMO. But paying extra attention and being prepared to give way, regardless of green lights, etc., is the right thing to do. Those blue lights may well be in response to a life-threatening situation elsewhere.
I'm pretty sure that's more a by-product of bells/horns not being easy to acoustically locate, rather than by design.
I remember in the 90's hearing sirens with a broadband noise blast to help with locating. Not sure what happened to them, maybe people just found them too weird!
https://youtu.be/cykmhi6bF4k?feature=shared&t=74
I am a firefighter, and drive fire engines for a living, although for a different brigade. We are all very aware that in this case the legal judgement will be that the driver is at fault.Our training says that if we cross red lights under blues, we slow down and only continue to cross if we can see that the other road users have come to a halt. The driver is likely to lose his licence, and will certainly his emergency response entitlement.
However, morally, I would agree that the cyclist should have been aware and waited. There is a real reason why we travel quickly and go through red traffic lights!
To be fair, he is far from alone, and I never cease to be amazed at the actions of drivers I see when I'm driving under blues. If drivers can't see big red trucks with noisy sirens, flashing lights and Day-Glo stripes all over them, what chance do cyclists have?
Yes, the cyclists should have stopped, but yes the driver should also have seen and avoided (and expected) him.
As a word of warning, if you ever see one of us on emergency response do be aware that there is a lot of conversation going on in the truck about what we're going to, what we need to consider, where the hell are we going, etc , etc. (and it should also be remembered that there is the odd bad one out there, too). So, the driver has a lot of distraction to filter. That is not a justification for dangerous driving and it's still going to be the driver’s fault if you get hit, but that's no consolation if you're dead in a ditch, so it's safest to assume they are all as dangerous as Audis and give them as much space as you can.
Blimey, someone on the internet who can speak with knowledge and experience and have a reasoned/balanced view. How dare you! I thought the usual trick was for everyone to jump in with preconceived POVs and then move swiftly to personal insults, before linking the issue to the Tories, Brexit, Hitler &/or all of them.
I do apologise: I must have had a sudden rush of blood to the head I'm going to lie down in a darkened room...
Thanks for your insight on this one. My old flat was above a major junction and also was a principal emergency route (fire, ambulance stations and hospital just round the corner). Would always see the drivers slow down and take junction with caution. Passenger would be juking up the nearside approach.
It's at times like this that one really gives thanks that Martin73 was banned...
That said it's a shocking lack of awareness from the cyclist, particularly in this area (in which I live) where there is a major hospital, fire station and police station in pretty close proximity; it's quite rare to ride through that part of Brixton without encountering at least one emergency vehicle on call.
ETA just for extra information, it looks on the video as if this is an open junction with clear sightlines, it absolutely is not: the railway bridge runs directly over the side from which the fire engine emerges, so the driver would have had no view of the cyclist and vice-versa until they were both in the junction (see pic, this would be the fire engine driver's view). Given the lack of vision there's culpability on both sides in my opinion, driver should have slowed and checked given that they were blind to what was coming from the right, cyclist shouldn't have entered the junction until they'd ascertained where the siren was coming from and that it was safe.
I disagree. The blame here is 100% on the blue light driver. Whilst they have a difficult job and I appreciate they're under pressure to make time, the law states they must treat red lights as a give way.
If this junction was a give way and you were driving/cycling through it, would you have done so in that manner? That is the test:
From the TSRGD:
(4) Sub-paragraph (5) applies on an occasion where a vehicle is being used for at least one of the purposes set out in sub-paragraph (6) and the observance of the prohibition in sub-paragraph (3) would be likely to hinder the use of the vehicle for that purpose.
(5) The prohibition conveyed is that the vehicle must not proceed beyond the stop line in such a manner or at such a time as to be likely to endanger any person or to cause the driver of another vehicle to change its speed or course in order to avoid an accident.
(6) The purposes are—
(a)fire and rescue authority;
(b)Scottish Fire and Rescue Service;
(c)ambulance;
(d)blood service;
(e)providing a response to an emergency at the request of an NHS ambulance service;
(f)bomb or explosive disposal;
(g)special forces
(h)police; and
(i)National Crime Agency.
No I wouldn't have, and that's why I say some of the blame is with the driver, but equally if I were approaching a junction on my bike with a blind entrance to my left and sirens sounding close by I wouldn't have just ridden straight across without slowing and checking either, and if I had and got hit I'd say I was partly culpable.
Here lies the body of William Jay,
Who died maintaining his right of way.
He was right as he sped along—
But he's just as dead as if he'd been wrong. (Usually recited to me by my wife on foot near zebra crossings.)
Defensive riding (and driving, as taught to me by my father). We all do it - the van that's slowly but steadily creeping up to the end of a side road you're passing, the grey menace car that's started some crappy 5 point turn, you know s/he's likely next to engage reverse without looking, the revving, aggressive driver "stuck" behind you (30s feels like a lifetime to both parties for opposing reasons), the car that's just pulled-up on the left that's going to swing a door into your both, the dog walker who is crossing in front of you without looking, the residential driveways on that descent - drivers may emerge without looking, and that signalled junction you're approaching with sirens audible - somewhere around - you risk being rear-ended as you take it carefully
Oh yes, so troo. We cyclists, if we claim to be the full monty, will have developed a sixth sense consisting of the ability to notice, interpret and act on all sorts of twitches, badges, expressions, signs, portents, gurns, vocalisations and other stuff emanating from folk using the roads and pavements. They all have meanings - helpful, benign or aggresive.
We could all list our favourites. One of mine is the personalised number plate, which often (not always) indicates one who is a self-centred little skinbag likely to be stuffed with "my important rights", not one duty towards others, but a high expectation that you will do your duty to service his many rights, especially his right of way. Toad personified. POOP-POOP!
But there's also the considerate ones, who will slow, smile or even wave you to a precedence. In West Wales, mind, they often want to stop and chat with you for at least ten minutes and the others behind will just have to wait! The thing is, they do; and patiently!!
Got to agree with the general principle David is advorcating. I started motorcycling in 1978 and from the outset it was drummed into me, the bastards are are out to get you. Learn to look after number one. In this case the rider might have a 'right' to ride through a green traffic light but that doesn't necessarily make it the right thing do.
But his poem is not about defensive riding, it's saying don't be assertive, cowtow to the people using their vehicles as weapons.
The idea that 'might is right' is the principal problem on British streets.
We need to stop giving in to bullies.
I agree I would also have been cautious if I heard sirens, but the blue light driver cannot assume that traffic will yield.
In effect, if you take that view, then you would be accepting any injury sustained by a person who is deaf as reasonable collateral damage.
If every road user drove/rode in a way that meant they were always approaching junctions with the mindset that they should need to give way at any moment then there wouldnt be a need for traffic lights.
Now you're talking!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jgacSmLBSIQ
https://therantyhighwayman.blogspot.com/2020/05/most-highway-infrastruct...
https://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2019/06/12/how-hard-is-it-to-cross-th...
Per the others for practical safety it's a question of degree. Speed is part of it - but motor vehicles bring a triple-whammy of effortless speed, reduced observation (door pillars, enclosed cab etc) *and* relative invulnerability.
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