roaduser66:
Yoyo perhaps put it a little forcefully, but he appears to be right. Risky or illegal behaviour by cyclists is NOT what’s causing these tragedies. In some cases, it was the cyclist obeying the law and stopping at red lights that contributed to their deaths. Mary Bowers was in an ASL box, waiting at the lights, where she was supposed to be. The lorry driver behind her failed to notice and rolled over her effectively ending her life:
thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/cy … 631594.ece
It was the same with Sebastien Lukomski, waiting at the lights, doing nothing wrong, killed by a tipper driver who failed to notice him:
ralphsmyth.me.uk/citycyclists/seb.html
Both cyclists doing NOTHING wrong, yet were killed by lorry drivers who weren’t paying attention.
Catriona Patel, waiting at the lights, doing nothing wrong, killed by a drunk lorry driver who was chatting on a mobile phone.
road.cc/content/news/27696-londo … lowed-kill
Consider the death of cyclist Daniel Cox.
thecyclingsilk.blogspot.co.uk/20 … l-cox.html
The lorry driver who killed Daniel had driven into the ASL box for cyclists, did not have the correct mirrors fitted and was indicating in the opposite direction to which he turned. The cyclist did NOTHING wrong. In a quarter of cyclist fatalities the cyclist was hit from behind. In fact it is rare that anything the cyclist did wrong contributes to a KSI RTC:
Cyclists disobeying stop signal or wearing dark clothing at night rarely cited in collisions causing serious injury
theguardian.com/lifeandstyle … ents-study
So, if it is rarely cyclist behaviour that contributes to these horrible events, what is it? Construction vehicles are wildly disproportionately represented in the fatal stats. Are we to suppose that cyclists are generally happy with their life, content and stable, and then suddenly become suicidal when they see a construction lorry? Are cyclists careful around all other HGVs and rash and reckless only when tippers are around? Seems unlikely.
Could it be the type of vehicle?
Jenny Jones: Could you confirm the number of HGVs stopped by police in London for each year since 2000, the proportion that were found to be driving illegally, any breakdown of offences and the proportion that were stopped by specialist traffic police?
Answer from the Mayor: The MPS did not, until 2008, keep a record of the number of HGVs that were stopped. In 2008/09 3,000 vehicles were stopped (all types including lightweight vans). Of these 1329 were ‘trucks’ over 7.5 tonnes [note: vehicles over 7.5 tonnes are defined as HGVs]. Proportion found to be driving illegally: Offences were found in an average 80% of these vehicles.
That means that of every five lorries that overtake a cyclist, according to the conviction stats only one of the drivers is obeying the law. Now that’s scary. Whatever the causes, can we please stop claiming that it is cyclists’ behaviour that is causing these fatalities. It usually isn’t.
You’re having a laugh just like BH’s bs.The fact is cyclists don’t get run over by left turning trucks by waiting at the stop line at lights and/or holding back at junctions for the truck to enter the junction and turn.Even in the worse case scenario of the type of driver who zb’s up a turn as shown above.
IE at worse the rear wheels of the truck can only run over the kerb ‘after’ the truck starts turning having ‘entered’ the junction.As we’ve said rule 73 always applies and most/all cyclists seem to have a problem in understanding it or even wanting to understand it.Ironically in that case forcing truck drivers to act mistakenly in the hope that hugging the kerb on the approach to a left turn will stop the cyclists undertaking regardless of wether the truck driver overtook them on the approach or not.
As for the establishment trying to make all that the fault of truck drivers what a surprise.When at best it is a case of 50/50 when truck drivers overtake before a left turn then the cyclist ignores rule 73.While at worst an innocent truck driver,who was just a victim of being undertaken by a cyclist at the wrong place at the wrong time,gets falsely accused by the suicidal cyclist cause and their political appeasers in the government. 
) can only see in one direction at once.
