This Is How Cyclists Get Killed
A video from the ever prolific Lewis Dediare, a.k.a. Traffic Droid:
As Lewis admits in his own commentary,
“I was on the inside lane on the red route lines and shortly after the boxed junctions. As I was riding I suddenly noticed this truck veering slowly into my lane,…he left his indication somewhat too late but I should have dropped back.
This could have resulted in serious injury.
I dont wear Ipods and my eyes scan but somehow missed this one.“
He’s a very lucky boy, because the driver of the lorry either had no idea he was there, or assumed that he’d take evasive action.
He was in a bus lane that disappears as it goes through the junction, at which point the lorry driver starts his signal-and-manoeuvre. It’s not as if he was riding like a lunatic, and if this can happen to an experienced, tooled-up, outside broadcast unit of a cyclist, what can the novice wobbler expect?
Put simply, our cities are not fit for purpose.
Something similar happened to me on Thursday night riding home, only it wasn’t a disappearing lane - I had the full lane and was moving faster than the SUV, the lady just didn’t look & moved across, and I ran in to the driver side door hard enough to scare her. Again, resolved in a gentlemanly fashion - “Do you always drive like this, or was today a special occasion?” “Sorry…”
A While back, I was in a bus lane in central Edinburgh when a HGV who was in the regular lane started to overtake me but met the back of a queue at traffic lights, and immediately moved into the bus lane before he was even a cab length by. With railings on the left and a sharp left bend coming up all I could do was rap his door. Give him his due he stopped instantly and was quite rational when I explained why I did it.
This is one of the many reasons I argue that cyclists are better-off staying in the general traffic lane. If we’re off to someone’s side, they can easily miss us, but when we’re right in front of them or behind them, there’s virtually no chance of a conflict.
The one serious moment I’ve had with an HGV was because his blind spots were on the opposite side… being a French haulage vehicle on the streets of Bristol! Should we be saying never go down the right hand side of HGVs too?
I have a whistle on a lanyard round my neck - significantly more effective than a bell at providing an audible warning. I’ve saved myself from being squashed, going over someone’s bonnet or having someone step out in front of me several times. At £1.99 on eBay, it’s a good investment.
Ouch. Kudos to both of them for being sensible about it though.
I believe that here trucks need to have mirrors to avoid this sort of thing happening, but of course they’ll be on the other side, so not a lot of use in the UK.
More worrying question: do UK based trucks driving here have the same mirrors?