Hull cyclist who lost his life was in blind spot caused by lorry's wing mirror

A court has heard that a cyclist who was hit and killed when the driver of a skip lorry turned into him was hidden by a blind spot caused by the vehicle’s wing mirror in the moments leading up to the collision.

The Hull Daily Mail reports that at 7.35am on July 17, Craig Beharrell was cycling along Hessle Road, west Hull, when Peter Sanderson began turning left out of Wiltshire Road and drove into him.

A van driver who had been behind the lorry said Sanderson had been, "seemingly oblivious to the presence of the cyclist, who was at that stage more or less directly in front of him".

Beharrell suffered multiple injuries and was pronounced dead on arrival at hospital shortly after the collision.

Sanderson denies causing death by careless driving.

Beharrell was wearing a fluorescent orange top and riding in a cycle lane. Prosecutors say he was "not in any way at fault".

Sanderson told police that he "never saw no pushbike" leading up to the collision.

A GoPro camera on Beharrell’s chest recorded footage of the collision. Defence expert Matthew Cass, a CCTV analyst, studied the footage and said the lorry and cyclist had become "synchronised" as they approached the junction and Beharrell would have been temporarily obscured from view by the vehicle’s wing mirrors.

He concluded that the cyclist had been completely in a blind spot caused by the door mirrors for up to three seconds and would have become partially obscured less than two seconds before the collision.

Mark Laprell, defending, asked Cass: "Is there any point when the driver's face is visible from the GoPro?"

Cass replied: "No there isn't."

David Gordon, prosecuting, asked Cass whether there was any academic research being done into the phenomenon of ‘wing mirror blind spot synchronicity’.

Cass said he was not aware of any.

"These particular wing mirrors – these double wing mirrors on HGVs – they've been a standard feature of HGVs for ten years now, haven't they?" said Gordon. "These wing mirrors are a potentially fatal feature of all HGVs driving up and down our roads every day, aren't they?"

"That's not for me to comment on," said Cass.

The case continues.

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