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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Don't you remember the movie? "We're going to need a bigger boatcow"
“it’s only right tiny minority who recklessly disregard others face full weight of the law” Of course. But not the reckless majority.
Ducati is the wrong comparison, Ducati sell because they have the Italian sports heritage, and their bikes just always look and sound right....
A bit of an update on this. I'm indirectly involved in a plan as one of my work colleagues runs the local cycling club. I say indirectly as I'm not...
Perhaps you're confusing them with "Just stop oil"?...
"and it’s longer lasting than a drip lube" - erm? Let's take the Pepsi challenge with silca synerg-e drip lube?
Just drill some holes!
Aren't the levers backward compatible?
Been working with rail & bus operators for around 40 years, with a lot of data from systesm world-wide...
Some Highways Authorities insist on over engineered designs, and that might have happened here. They should be following Local Transport Note 1/20.