Cycling carnage goes on

Published: 14 April, 2011

• OUR deepest sympathy must go to the family and friends of the cyclist (Woman, 20, is latest cycle death victim –shocked witnesses tried to save student trapped under truck, April 7).

Let us not fool ourselves.  This will not be the last such tragedy that we will hear of this year, and the carnage will continue.  

We will read about the next person who suffers a premature end, and the eternal grief bestowed upon their loved ones.  

And all of us will be thinking how lucky it was that it was not our son/ daughter/ mother/ father/ partner who was taken from us. Unless it was.

But it is possible to reduce the number of such tragedies by changing the law so that there is a stricter liability placed upon us as motorists in the event of such incidents.  

Such a law is commonplace in other European countries and elsewhere, where motor vehicle incidents involving pedestrians and cyclists are far fewer, and the streets a safer place to live for all. 

Organisations such as RoadPeace are active in trying to take this forward.

But this change will not happen if we remain complacent. I would urge all your readers to speak to their MP and insist that this issue is given priority.

DR GREG CARSON, NW3

Learn to ride defensively

• EVERY death of a cyclist in a road accident (New Journal, April 7) is a tragedy.  

It is also, of course, beyond doubt that all relevant technical modifications to trucks and roads should be made; and that the circumstances of such terrible events and the drivers involved need to be fully investigated.  

However, we should give due cognisance to the principle taught by the Institute of Advanced Motorists, called “defensive driving”.  

It means that a driver needs constantly to be aware of what in any road situation could go wrong – because of what other drivers, or cyclists or pedestrians, (whether through carelessness, or distracted attention, or stupidity or drunkenness or failure of equipment, or whatever), could possibly do.  

And the practise of this awareness should lead to an avoidance of any such possible circumstance.  

A cyclist applying such a principle would make it an absolute rule never to ride on the left of a large vehicle, whether truck or bus or van, or even a car when near a possible turn to the left.  

The full rule would go: ride past if you are certain it is clear, or else stay behind; but never ride along with a vehicle on its left side. 

And don’t put your trust in cycle lanes: your right to be there will be of no use to you if you are dead.  

The  principle of “defensive cycling” could, and should, be taught by every parent and in every school as soon as a person starts to ride a bicycle on the road. 

I believe that if it were, and if it were observed, the number of these tragic deaths would fall sharply. 

Our real and appropriate feeling for these tragic accidents should not deter us from pursuing this educational remedy. 

It would cost a little, but any money spent on such an approach would be infinitely worth it.  

THOM OSBORN,
N7

I’m scared to use my bike

• I WISH to express my condolences and my extreme sadness at the number of cyclists being killed and injured on the roads every day.

This needs to be addressed by all of us.

Cyclists could help themselves by wearing similar fluorescent jackets as have to be worn by workers near or on our roads

How many cyclists injured or killed were not wearing jackets?

Last year I wrote to Boris Johnson to ask him to make the wearing of such jackets compulsory.

His office dismissed my concerns.

I have a bike but at present I am scared to use it. I want us all safer and more respectful of each other.

JENNIFER THOMAS
St Albans Road, NW5

Get rid of this ‘blind spot’

• IN common with all your readers, I imagine, I was shocked and dismayed to learn of all the deaths of cyclists in collisions with such vehicles as trucks, buses, dustcarts, etcetera.  

I was especially appalled to learn (New Journal, April 7) that an inquest into Emma Foa’s death in 2006 was told the driver “was sorting papers in his cab…” and, most of all, to learn that he wasn’t even sent to prison; just fined £300. This is particularly incomprehensible when we learn that someone who stole a violin – albeit a Stradivarius – was jailed for four and a half years.

In your report about the most recent death you say police “will try to... ascertain whether the cyclist was caught in the truck’s blind spot…”

You report on Maria Fernandez’s death in 2008 and also mention a “blind spot” and that the inquest verdict was “accidental death”.  

As a non-driver I’m not sure what this “blind spot” is.

But if it is something which can cause the deaths of cyclists (and presumably other road-users including pedestrians) every effort should immediately be taken to eliminate it!  

I would be interested in any information about this with a view to a possible campaign against it.

MARGARET KING
Address supplied