The Metropolitan Police has issued a witness appeal after a female cyclist was left seriously injured yesterday afternoon following a collision with a tipper lorry in Camden. In particular, police want to speak to two specific people they believe witness the crash.
The incident took place at the junction of Camden High Street and Delancey Street, NW1. The driver of the tipper truck, a 44-year-old male, was arrested on suspicion of careless driving and taken to a north London police station.
The cyclist, aged in her 20s, was taken to hospital and is described as being in a “serious but stable” condition. The Metroplitan Police’s Collision Investigation Unit in Northolt is investigating.
Detective Sergeant Steve Pidgeon commented: "I need to hear from anybody who witnessed the collision or the moments leading up to it. I am particularly keen to speak with a pedestrian who was crossing Delancey Street at the time of the collision, and a cyclist who was riding a short distance ahead of the cyclist injured."
Anyone with information should call police on 020 8842 1817.
One witness told the London Evening Standard that the junction presents particular risks for cyclists.
Camden resident Graham Spencer, who had been walking on the High Street when the incident happened, told the newspaper: “I would say that corner is very dangerous. The lorries put their indicators on to turn left and the bikes try to get around the outside but they just get clipped.
“I think they should have some sort of cycle lane on the road,” he added.
-1024x680.jpg "“Clear anti-cyclist bias”: Lawsuit filed against Toronto police after cop doored cyclist… before ticketing rider over incident")
37 thoughts on “Witness appeal after cyclist seriously injured in Camden lorry collision”
More details and some pretty
More details and some pretty stomach churning photos on the Evening Standard website:
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/woman-cyclist-suffers-life-changing-injuries-after-crash-with-tipper-truck-in-camden-8895992.html
@hanuman – Jesus, those
@hanuman – Jesus, those pictures turn my blood to ice.
Yet another tipper truck? Where is the construction industry in all this? I know that some companies are making efforts but surely it’s time to recognise that these particular vehicles are not safe to drive in an urban area.
I cycle up Camden high street most days and it’s pretty unpleasant – 3 lanes wide with cars accelerating to beat the lights then changing lanes for the fork at the tube station. Added to that you’ve got a really busy area with pedestrians spilling on to the streets from narrow pavements. This stretch from Mornington Crescent to Camden Town badly needs a redesign and could easily accomodate wider footpaths, a dedicated two way cycle lane, a bus lane and a single lane for traffic.
None of this will help that poor girl though – really hope she pulls through and makes a full recovery.
Yet we have a hit and run
Yet we have a hit and run resulting in the death of a cycling ignored by the cycling media…
http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/latest-news/top-stories/driver-hunt-after-cyclist-killed-near-leeds-1-6162878
Anything outside London…
Leodis wrote:Yet we have a
Not ignored, Leodis, for whatever reason that simply has not turned up during our news searches. We have plenty of stories that go up on issues outside London.
And if you – or anyone else – sees something you think we should be covering, please email info@road.cc or contact us via Facebook or Twitter.
Anyway, thanks for the link.
Simon_MacMichael wrote:Leodis
Not ignored, Leodis, for whatever reason that simply has not turned up during our news searches. We have plenty of stories that go up on issues outside London.
And if you – or anyone else – sees something you think we should be covering, please email info@road.cc or contact us via Facebook or Twitter.
Anyway, thanks for the link.— Leodis
Will do, didnt mean to sound so…
“I think they should have
said someone who probably knows nothing about road design.
Hope she pulls through ok,
Hope she pulls through ok, poor girl.
Tipper trucks. Why so often
Tipper trucks. Why so often tipper trucks?
Because they’re the worst of
Because they’re the worst of the worst.
All the attitude of a white van driver in a much more dangerous vehicle.
I always stay well away from them.
I’ve just discovered that the
I’ve just discovered that the Construction Industry Council are holding their annual Gala dinner on 7th November on the Southbank – http://www.cic.org.uk/events/event.php?event=2013-11-07-cic-gala-dinner
Anyone interested in a protest ride?
How could you walk away after
How could you walk away after seeing any sort of accident?
I would be interested to know
I would be interested to know what the ratio of people killed by guns in London is to the amount of cyclists killed by tipper trucks in London is.
I dont mean to trivalise this but if tipper trucks were a particular breed of dog or a type of drug and had killed so many people im sure there would be MPs clamouring to get them banned.
Some Fella wrote:I would be
But tipper trucks help build the enormous buildings shooting up all over the capital. There’s too much investment and profit at stake for the government to properly legislate against them – it would be anti-business. Hence payment by load continues and no mandatory implementation of truck safety features.
Some Fella wrote:I would be
29 gun deaths in London in 2011 according to one story I found on a quick Google. 16 (maybe 17) cycling deaths, 9 of which involved a lorry.
Gizmo_ wrote:Some Fella
More likely to get shot than knocked off your bike by a tipper truck.
I dont know if that makes me feel better or not.
I think i shall just continue my policy of avoiding London at all costs.
Gizmo_ wrote:Some Fella
I await the calls for kevlar vests to be made mandatory for all Londoners.
This is horrible … but ….
This is horrible … but …. I don’t get it where has common sense gone?
When I’m cycling about I make sure I stay clear of large vehicles like this to ensure I don’t put myself in the danger zone. Is this something to do with commuting in London and that you’d never make progress if you rode with the aim of protecting yourself from harm.
Need help understanding where common sense has gone?
usedtobefaster wrote:This is
Camden High Street is one way and has a bus lane on the left and three lanes of traffic to the right – at this junction vehicles turn left across the bus lane, where most cyclists are. It looks as this may have been the case in this incident – the tipper truck appears not to have seen her and turned across her path.
I also stay away from large vehicles – the problem is that they don’t always stay away from me.
You are assuming that lorry
You are assuming that lorry didn’t overtake and crush the rider without seeing her. As long as there is no video or a unanimity of non-cyclist witnesses to prove otherwise, an left turn accident will be assumed to be the cyclists fault.
The blind spots are so easily
The blind spots are so easily removed….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CY3azQJZMsU
Can’t planning permission be granted on the basis of safer lorries being used? Its the NHS, Police and emergancy services that bear the costs after all.
If the lorries are worried that they are being blamed when its the cyclists fault, these cameras could be set to record so we’d have some evidence.
According to the Evening
According to the Evening Standard, she was travelling straight ahead on the right hand side of the lorry; how do you get dragged underneath a lorry turning left from there? An alarming number of these incidents seem to involve females in their 20s!
AyBee wrote:According to the
Looking at the bloody horrible pictures, I don’t get how the bike ended up there if she was right side of him
Here’s the junction on Google Street View
https://www.google.co.uk/maps?q=Delancey+Street,+London&hl=en&ll=51.537175,-0.141131&spn=0.002763,0.008256&sll=51.725344,-1.22258&sspn=0.176087,0.528374&oq=delance&hnear=Delancey+St,+London,+United+Kingdom&t=m&z=18&layer=c&cbll=51.537175,-0.141131&panoid=am1Mh0P4Ovt9jKhIImihHQ&cbp=12,296.36,,0,11.99
The truck would have been doing the same turn that the red car in Streetview is.
For the bike to end up under the trucks driver-side wheels she would have had to have been going straight on from the left hand lane and the truck cut across her before she’d gone past the turning into Delancy Street.
Thoughts are with the woman – hope she’s able to make a full recovery
Duplicated point
Duplicated point
“how do you get dragged
“how do you get dragged underneath a lorry turning left from there”
quite simple really – how many times have you seen a car move to the right immediately before turning left in the supposed need to get a better line at the corner. Not saying that the lorry did move to the right in order to turn left but it is a quite likely scenario. If the cyclist was keeping to the left of her lane then it is very easy to see how the two connected with such disturbing results.
Andy G wrote:”how do you get
Actually yeah, now you say it that sounds feasible
Well, he seems negligent
Well, he seems negligent enough to not check his brake lights, one of them seems to be broken.
I don’t understand how she got caught under the front wheels if she was travelling on the outside either, though, she must have been out of his line of sight under the cab or something?
Either way, looks shocking and I feel very sorry for all involved.
Possibly she was turning left
Possibly she was turning left from infront and to the right of the truck. If she’d kept wide too and the driver was being overly conscientious with his left wing mirror view (which is perfectly reasonable I’d say) then it’s quite possible that he’d have collided with her at that point and with his wheels locked to teh left like that.
It’s tragic either way but it’s hard to pin blame on the driver immediately. It would be interesting to see if he’d impeded on the ASL box at the junction (which would, as intended, have given her less time to get ahead of moving traffic) or not.
IMHO these tippers are what should be restricted to the midnight hours only as they are just too big, blindsided and cumbersome for rush hour or daylight traffic, even with a safe and sensible driver at the helm.
Thoughts are with her right now
Carvers wrote:
IMHO these
Agreed, although I hired a transit van (really not in the same league as these things) to move house, and the blind spot on the left was a shocker. I’m not kidding, it’s ridiculously unsafe. I pulled up to a right turn that’s angled to the right (so the turn itself is very gentle, like 45 degrees or something), and I could see LITERALLY nothing of the traffic approaching from the left, everything was in the blind spot. I couldn’t reverse on that road either, so ended up clambering along the seats to look out the passenger window, watching for a sufficiently large gap, then scrambling back to the drivers seat, engaging first, release brake, and blindly drive off while hoping that the situation hadn’t changed. Scary stuff.
My thoughts are with the victim.
Tipper trucks should have
Tipper trucks should have skirts fitted to prevent the tragic accident yesterday. Plus a ban during rush hours would help!
How many deaths does it take
How many deaths does it take before these lorries are banned from our inner city roads forever more during rush hour?
She was to the right of the
She was to the right of the truck as it made a left turn wasn’t she? Vehicles do typically move to the right before making a left turn. This sets up the vehicle better for the corner. It’s physics.
Tipper trucks do have a wide turning circle and to get round a tight corner, there is even more of a need to make this initial move to the right before making a left turn. And the large turning circle of a tipper also means that the move to the right would be more pronounced.
Banning tippers from London’s streets is unlikely. Restricting their use to night time only is also unlikely. But fitting detection technology to alert the driver to the presence of a cyclist, motorcyclist or pedestrian is comparatively inexpensive. The systems are proven. They should be made compulsory for any tipper truck used in London. Tipper truck drivers should also be required to undergo cycle training to be allowed to drive in the city.
This woman is reported as having life changing injuries, so it’s possible she may never recover fully.
Pity…
Simple answer is for
Pity…
Simple answer is for cyclist to give HGV’s a bit of time and a wide berth. Doing this she could have ridden to work the next day.
Looking at the truck its a 20tonner which for a city centre is a pretty unwieldy vehicle, a 16tonner would be so much more manouverable & shorter but carries 45% less capacity meaing more trips. It’s a pay off against safety and cost so safety loses on this occasion. It shouldn’t.
Cyclist must ride with
Cyclist must ride with continual risk assessment at all times. We dress in hi-viz cover ourselves in reflective tape, wear helmets, glasses and gloves they ride like loonies at times.
Looking at photos of the
Looking at photos of the junction on the web, the junction filters cyclists into the left turn lane even if they’re going straight on. Looks like a perfect storm if you have to cut across to the right of a high cabbed vehicle. Yes cyclists should hang back from HGV’ s but there is very large element of tipper trucks being inappropriately designed for urban use. And no, tipper truck drivers wearing HI-viz, helmets and reflective tape is going to do sweet FA for vulnerable pedestrians, children or cyclists being directed into the wrong position.
FFS, not again.
Ban these
FFS, not again.
Ban these death-chariots from rush hour traffic, at least.
I hope the woman makes a good
I hope the woman makes a good recovery despite what sound like horrific injuries.
Possibly pedantic and possibly wrong but that looks like a roll off skip truck to me not a tipper – no big deal both construction related, both often paid by the load and expected to be at site at specific times and take a lot of road space to turn.
I’m pretty sure I claim the
I’m pretty sure I claim the whole lane there, sod anyone behind me, then join in with the onwards moving traffic. But I have felt pressured by the other road users to be somewhere else. Unfortunately with a road layout like that you have to be thinking ahead and riding assertively, and it only takes a few moments of uncertainty to end up in an unsafe position.
Of course, that’s also a bit of a hill there too, so a (rather unobservant) driver approaching from behind could miss the cyclist slowing down and falling into their manoeuvring space.