Cycling campaigners called for Battersea road changes months before waitress death

Calls from cycling campaigners for an update of road safety policies on the London road where Italian cyclist Lucia Ciccioli was killed this week were rebuffed by Wandsworth Council in August. The council said that procedures on the road would only be reviewed if three people are killed or 12 are seriously injured within 50 metres of one another.

Jon Irwin is the campaigner who was turned away by Wandsworth Council in August, and revealed the reasons for the council's lack of action over the following two months to the Standard newspaper last week.

The council told Irwin that the Lavender Hill road where Ciccioli was killed last week is managed by Transpot for London, and that updating the infrastructure on that road was not its responsibility.

A Londoner himself, Irwin from Tooting, said that his focus is changing the guidelines that stop councils taking preventative action.

"What I want to see done is have these guidelines changed," the 36-year old cyclist told the Standard. "I'm lucky that I'm not campaigning burdened with the trauma of having lost somebody on the roads.

"Every time you see this happen you think, ‘it could have been me or it could have been one of my mates. To have that happen and get told, ‘your statistic isn’t enough’ – this needs to stop.

“Every tragedy needs to be reviewed in itself; no one should have to lose their life to have things changed.”

>Read more: Cyclist killed in London HGV collision named as Lucia Ciccioli - SKC organise die-in

Ciccioli, the cyclist who was killed in a collision with a HGV last week had been living in London for four years and working as a waitress for a chain of Vietnamese restaurants.

The driver of the HGV stopped following the collision, but has not been arrested. The Met Police are currently investigating the incident.

Immediately after the incident was reported by the Standard, Jon Irwin tweeted that the HGV pictured, which emerged later as the HGV involved in Ciccioli's death, "has zero visibility up to four metres in front of the cab."

If the lorry involved is the one in the picture, my understanding is that the driver has zero visibility up to 4m in front of the cab. https://t.co/xHWVGZa2a1

— Jon Irwin (@JonIrwinLD) October 24, 2016

Infrastructure campaigner at the London Cycling Campaign, Simon Monk, responded to the incident by saying that "we need a city that is accessible and safe for cyclists and pedestrians," highlighting that vulnerable road users are often afraid to use gyratories and multi-lane roundabouts.

"We are finding that at certain places where there has been a fatality things are getting done to prevent it happening again but it takes a long time and a lot of pressure from campaigners to see things change."

“TfL and Sadiq Khan are working to roll-out a cycle safety schemes but these things take years.”

Friends of Ciccioli said that she had been warned about cycling in London, but said that "she's quite a headstrong person."

Sam Ladjemi, a friend of Ciccioli's said "

"She didn’t always listen to other people’s advice, but she was very careful and I think she always had her head screwed on.

“She was such a bubbly, helpful and friendly waitress and that is why everyone is in such shock."

Campaign group Stop Killing Cyclists are set to hold a die-in at the junction of Lavender Hill and Elspeth Road, where the incident took place on Monday October 31 at 5.30pm.