Sad of course of the loss of life especially in the circumstance.
I think there is a feeling often that when something does go wrong it’s invariably going to result in blame on the professional driver, so posting this link to show it’s not necessarily a foregone conclusion.
No doubt the driver will still have a burden to carry from just being involved.
Good, a sensible ruling. It is just a shame he has had to go through the worry of prison on top of the guilt of someone being killed in an incident he was involved in. Instead of automatically blaming the driver they should put more onus on the pedestrians and cyclists having more awareness of their surroundings. At no point can they not see the truck in their vicinity, but there is a chance the driver hasn’t seen them and they should always presume he hasn’t.
‘FATALLY KILLED’ according to the newspaper…
Don’t take this the wrong way and it is deeply saddening for all concerned but the 3 cyclists mentioned in the news report all had Asian sounding names. Coincidence or possibly not used to cycling in our traffic conditions?
I had a similar incident with a cyclist 6 months after I passed class 1, thankfully she didn’t die but did suffer from pelvic injury and other injuries. I was turning left onto a road across a cycle lane which was a part of the pavement and then continued across the junction. It was 10mths before it was dealt with by the courts and during that time I was in a bit of a state awaiting trial. At the time of the incident I recieved both threats of violence and racial abuse (I’m english and white, they weren’t) from passers by who immediately thought that I was to blame and in the wrong. 1 bloke told me I had killed a womans kids when I got out of the lorry and I was devastated when I saw an empty pushchair tipped over on the pavement (the lady had taken her child out of it and was carrying her but I didn’t know that at the time).
When the police arrived they dealt with me in a fair manner initially but as more police arrived the attitude changed from the newcomers who were speaking to people at the scene. I don’t know what was said but clearly the tone had changed. I couldn’t understand how it had happened or where the lady had come from or indeed how she had ended up going under the lorry and trailer. Surprisingly they had no witnesses to say what had happened and no witnesses could therefore be produced at court.
The incident happened in London and that was where I attended court.
My legal team brought in an expert who had worked for the police doing reconstructions for 22 years and had started his own company. He brought in his machines and measured the entire area down to the mm. In total he worked from 6 billion points of referance I think he said. His report to the court was long and detailed and covered absolutely everything leading up to and including the incident. He got his information to compile his report from my onboard cameras which are all round.
Turns out the lady on the bike was never visible to me in the mirrors as she had stayed travelling the same speed as me on the street leading up to the incident whilst looking in shop windows on her left. Not once did she look to her right or infront until the moment she went under the lorry. She had been riding down next to the shops and there was a 10 foot gap between her and the cycle lane, then approx 6 feet further to my truck. She at one point swerved after almost riding into a post and then after I had started to turn in she had swerved around a woman with the pushchair who had stopped at the junction to let me turn in before crossing. At no point was she visible to me, my travel speed was probably around 5 mph but after I went over her I was looking in my offside mirror to make sure my trailer wouldn’t hit a black discovery which had been conveniently parked near the entrance. She was in view of my nearside mirror for approximately 1 second before she went underneath.
The police submitted 7 seconds of video starting from the start of the turning manouvre until I stopped (a man waved his arms at me to tell me I needed to stop or I would have dragged her down the street to my job which was 150 yards into the street).
They still decided to prosecute me after recieving the report from my expert witness which stated catagorically that I wasn’t at fault and so I had to attend court for the trial.
The prosecution thought it was a clear case of guilty and the police had submitted an expected guilty plea because I was turning left and they stated that made me guilty due to the laws being changed around right of way for cyclists, pedestrians etc.
On the day I was bricking it but came away after being cleared of any wrong doing but it didn’t feel like a victory. The relief was overwhelming but the incident and what I went through still affects me now. Since the incident I have refused to take an arctic back there but do go in our rigid and there have been a further 2 incidents where different people have just walked straight out in front of the lorry without looking or paying attention to what is going on around them. Both of them were looking at their phones.
GasGas:
‘FATALLY KILLED’ according to the newspaper…
Should have said fatally killed to death! Just for clarity.
3 killed all Ting tongs !!! we’ve all seen the way they drive there totally clueless and there cycling is the same I’m not surprised at all. They can’t even walk without bumping into you and all they say is oh sorry sorry
Probably using her phone as well
Beau Nydel:
Don’t take this the wrong way and it is deeply saddening for all concerned but the 3 cyclists mentioned in the news report all had Asian sounding names. Coincidence or possibly not used to cycling in our traffic conditions?
I had the same thought. Coincidence? I think not.
I know its easy to stereotype but it reminds me of my younger days when I worked the fairground at Butlins. The dodgems was a ride I had to operate and it was great until you saw in the queue the extended family of Indian subcontinent origin. We used to make sure that it was just the large family on the ride together with nobody else on because they were a downright liability. They couldnt even drive a dodgem car let alone a real car. it was so dangerous that we were under orders NOT to jump on back of the dodgem cars to help as others have done and gotten hurt.
Welwyn:
I had a similar incident with a cyclist 6 months after I passed class 1, thankfully she didn’t die but did suffer from pelvic injury and other injuries. I was turning left onto a road across a cycle lane which was a part of the pavement and then continued across the junction. It was 10mths before it was dealt with by the courts and during that time I was in a bit of a state awaiting trial. At the time of the incident I recieved both threats of violence and racial abuse (I’m english and white, they weren’t) from passers by who immediately thought that I was to blame and in the wrong. 1 bloke told me I had killed a womans kids when I got out of the lorry and I was devastated when I saw an empty pushchair tipped over on the pavement (the lady had taken her child out of it and was carrying her but I didn’t know that at the time).When the police arrived they dealt with me in a fair manner initially but as more police arrived the attitude changed from the newcomers who were speaking to people at the scene. I don’t know what was said but clearly the tone had changed. I couldn’t understand how it had happened or where the lady had come from or indeed how she had ended up going under the lorry and trailer. Surprisingly they had no witnesses to say what had happened and no witnesses could therefore be produced at court.
The incident happened in London and that was where I attended court.
My legal team brought in an expert who had worked for the police doing reconstructions for 22 years and had started his own company. He brought in his machines and measured the entire area down to the mm. In total he worked from 6 billion points of referance I think he said. His report to the court was long and detailed and covered absolutely everything leading up to and including the incident. He got his information to compile his report from my onboard cameras which are all round.
Turns out the lady on the bike was never visible to me in the mirrors as she had stayed travelling the same speed as me on the street leading up to the incident whilst looking in shop windows on her left. Not once did she look to her right or infront until the moment she went under the lorry. She had been riding down next to the shops and there was a 10 foot gap between her and the cycle lane, then approx 6 feet further to my truck. She at one point swerved after almost riding into a post and then after I had started to turn in she had swerved around a woman with the pushchair who had stopped at the junction to let me turn in before crossing. At no point was she visible to me, my travel speed was probably around 5 mph but after I went over her I was looking in my offside mirror to make sure my trailer wouldn’t hit a black discovery which had been conveniently parked near the entrance. She was in view of my nearside mirror for approximately 1 second before she went underneath.
The police submitted 7 seconds of video starting from the start of the turning manouvre until I stopped (a man waved his arms at me to tell me I needed to stop or I would have dragged her down the street to my job which was 150 yards into the street).
They still decided to prosecute me after recieving the report from my expert witness which stated catagorically that I wasn’t at fault and so I had to attend court for the trial.
The prosecution thought it was a clear case of guilty and the police had submitted an expected guilty plea because I was turning left and they stated that made me guilty due to the laws being changed around right of way for cyclists, pedestrians etc.
On the day I was bricking it but came away after being cleared of any wrong doing but it didn’t feel like a victory. The relief was overwhelming but the incident and what I went through still affects me now. Since the incident I have refused to take an arctic back there but do go in our rigid and there have been a further 2 incidents where different people have just walked straight out in front of the lorry without looking or paying attention to what is going on around them. Both of them were looking at their phones.
Driving any type of truck, let alone an artic, in town was difficult enough under the more relaxed enforcement regime of the 1970’s and 80’s.Under these rules giving carter blanche to cyclists and pedestrians it’s a total liability with too much scope for ending up in jail.With the lose lose that present transport policy is to force trucks into a more urban final miles regime and off the open road where they naturally belong…
woman i know has a history of accidents/claims ,started with a genuine one and then every ten years or so pulls a fresh faker. Last one was going under a bus that was just turning out of station,she ducked under the front in his blind spot -if only she had put a tyre mark onto her top prior she would have got the big pot,as it was got 3k
It’s because of crap like this that I sneer every time a driver/cpc trainer points out that we’re supposed to be professionals.
The only time we’re treated as professionals is when we’re being prosecuted.
I thought with all this direction vision. Glass panels in door frames …all round cameras…and huge signage along trucks side rails etc. that stuff like this would never happen again.
Or so we were told
corij:
woman i know has a history of accidents/claims ,started with a genuine one and then every ten years or so pulls a fresh faker. Last one was going under a bus that was just turning out of station,she ducked under the front in his blind spot -if only she had put a tyre mark onto her top prior she would have got the big pot,as it was got 3k
There should be a data base, if the same name keeps cropping up. (Mohamed, we know who you are). She reminds me of Uncle Albert who had been down more holes than Arnolld Palmer.