Collateral Damage
Almost in the tragic irony department: London Mayor Boris Johnson (and his Transport Department head), scouting the capital (helmeted) on two wheels for the best cycle routes ahead of next summer’s big “Super Highways” cycling initiative, is nearly taken out by a rogue lorry (which itself had hit a Ford Mondeo, “catapulting” it towards the group). More here and here.
As Ben Porter notes, the event “seems to bring several issues together that are of concern at the moment in London. In addition to the irony of this incident occurring while the cycling group were scouting safe cycle routes there are growing worries about the dangers of HGVs in London, particularly in east London with the increase in construction traffic for the 2012 Olympics. There have been three women killed by lorries in recent weeks in the capital.” (see here and here).
Ben also notes the truck’s doors seem to have flown open after it crossed a speed table at an inappropriate velocity.
(thanks to Karl as well)
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This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 26th, 2009 at 4:27 pm and is filed under Bicycles, Cities, Commuting, Cyclists, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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May 27th, 2009 at 6:27 am
This is unrelated to the crash, but I’m confused as to why the cars aren’t all parked facing the same direction. Is this a one-way road? If so, why is the SUV [the middle parked car] facing in the against-traffic direction?
May 27th, 2009 at 1:39 pm
That’s amazing how far the truck catapulted the car it hit. Wow.
May 27th, 2009 at 3:38 pm
Yes, bike riders really have to be safe out there.
May 29th, 2009 at 12:40 pm
Even more ironically, I caught a piece on the TV news on the morning before this ‘accident’, where Boris was setting off on his jaunt - sans helmet! Not a good example, I thought.
By the way Nancy - it’s not such a strong rule in the UK for cars to park in the direction of traffic. At least, not one that people abide by.
May 29th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
Thanks, Mark. That particular parking rule isn’t enforced much in the US, either, but I think it should be. It doesn’t seem like a big deal until you’re riding your bike down the road and a car suddenly pulls into your lane heading straight at you [until they are able to get on their side of the road]. Whatever makes traffic more predictable is a good thing, IMO.