Another harrowing story in the Times today on cycle safety http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/cyclesafety/article3341082.ece covering a study of injured cyclists brought into the Royal London Hospital, pointing out that a cyclist was most likely to be killed or seriously injured through a collision with an HGV. The number of badly injured cyclists brought into this hospital has nearly trebled over the last six years and 16 cyclists have been killed in London so far in 2012.
2010 figures from the Department of Transport http://assets.dft.gov.uk/statistics/releases/road-accidents-and-safety-annual-report-2010/rrcgb2010-01.pdf showed that cycle serious injuries and deaths were one of the few categories to show a year on year increase in 2010 in an otherwise downward trend for overall road casualty figures. It is true to say, though, that the current level of casualties is still 26% below the average number for the period 1994-1998. The worry remains that as cycling becomes more and more popular in the UK these casualty figures will rise, and thus campaigns such as the LCC Go Dutch http://lcc.org.uk/pages/why-go-dutch , the Times own campaign and the specific pressure on HGV and cycling, is so important.
I myself have witnessed a classic left turning HGV crushing a cyclist up in the City; a very harrowing sight and, although I didn’t see all of it, the HGV appeared to be very much to blame. By contrast, just the other evening, whilst (car) driving on Greenwich South Street, I was undertaken by a cyclist who travelled within inches of my nearside door and then sped through two red lights, mounting two pavements at speed as he did so. I was waiting for the crunch of metal on bone which, thank goodness never came. Let’s hope that London and our local area can improve our infrastructure to make cycling a more attractive and safe mode of transport, making it easier for different modes of transport to co-exist. We have to keep up with the popularity of cycling and this should include, if possible, an adaption of traffic lights to allow a green/amber “go” cycling window ahead of motorists.
