Road layouts criticised after truck collision cyclist deaths

Transport for London and the capital’s mayor may be forced to re-examine their current cycling policy after it, and cyclist behaviour, came under criticism in a backlash following the deaths of six cyclists in two weeks last year.

Coroner Mary Hassell presided over inquests into the deaths of Brian Dorling and Philippine De Gerin-Ricard, who both died in incidents involving trucks on the so-called Cycle Superhighway 2 (CS2).

PC Simon Wickenden, from the Metropolitan Police’s traffic management unit, told both hearings that concerns had been relayed to Transport for London about the layout of CS2 as long ago as 2008, including 21 features of the Aldgate gyratory that they believed made it unsafe.

At Brian Dorling’s inquest, PC Wickenden said that while Bow roundabout’s blue-painted cycle lanes highlighted the potential presence of cyclists to drivers, “…it would be safer not to have the marking at all on the roundabout.”

During the same inquest, accident investigator PC Alex Hewitt was asked what the blue-painted lanes on the roundabout signified. His response was: “It’s just…blue paint.”

After watching CCTV evidence, Coroner Hassell said: “It’s an accident waiting to happen if cyclists are guided into…the very place where the lorry is going to hit them.”

Besides being an experienced cyclist, Brian Dorling was also a motorcycle enthusiast, making him better equipped than most to deal with difficult traffic situations on two wheels. As a chartered surveyor working on the Olympics site he would have also have been aware that large vehicles pose a hazard to other traffic.

His widow said: “This was supposed to be a dedicated cycle route offering people a safer way to use their bikes on the capital’s congested roads.”

The inquest into the death of French-born 20-year-old Philippine De Gerin-Ricard, who was the first person to be killed on a ‘Boris Bike’ hire cycle, heard that she had mounted the pavement in an attempt to pass a truck, but was forced to rejoin the carriageway because the pavement was obstructed by scaffolding.

The police explained that a TfL ‘improvement’ to the road had left the inner lane including the blue-painted cycleway just three metres wide at a point where the road narrowed from three to two lanes: the Boris Bike was 67 cm wide and the truck was 2.4 m wide.

The truck driver would have had less than four seconds in which he could have seen her in a mirror, and the vehicle was travelling at under 20 mph.

A possible escape route back onto the pavement for the cyclist was blocked by an advertising hoarding.

PC Wickenden said: “The lane widths at present don’t conform to best practice, either from the Department for Transport or TfL’s own design reference.

“The fact that it is part if the Cycle Superhighway, in my view, places an additional burden on the traffic authority. An overt attempt has been made to invite cyclists to use this. It has been promoted as a safe, continuous route to use to get into London. Therefore a solution different to what we are looking at now is required at this location.”

To the astonishment of the Coroner, TfL’s lawyer said that DfT guidance allows 2.5 m wide lanes. The lawyer added that minimum width rules only applied to new roads, not remodelled roads.

But PC Wickenden said: “One of the purposes of the scheme was to improve safety. Three-metre lanes, if that is the aim of the scheme, we’re not safe.”

Summing up, the coroner said: “I have heard evidence, and I accept this evidence, that what may be safest is not necessarily what seems most obvious to the cyclist. What may be safest is for the cyclist to come out into the lane and ‘take’ that lane so that they are very, very visible and there is no danger of a vehicle passing them too close – because they occupy the centre of that lane.

“But we can see that it may feel safer for the cyclists to be over on the left. I can understand that from Philippine’s point of view. She was cycling over on the left and then when the traffic got too bad she went up on the pavement, where she may have thought it safer.

“Unfortunately I think that was a major contributing factor in why the driver of the lorry didn’t see her. Because when she came off the footpath into the road, he then didn’t have the opportunity to see her coming towards him, as he may have done otherwise. Then she was visible in his mirror for such a short time that, given he had to look forwards and had to look in all the other mirrors, it wasn’t hard to understand why he didn’t see her.

“Then when Philippine was in front of the lorry, she was in a space that he just could not see. I think she didn’t have any conception of what danger she was in, in that space. As she was in front and the lorry was behind, she wasn’t able to accelerate in the same way the lorry was. Even though the lorry wasn’t going very fast at all, a slight collision of the two was enough to make her wobble and come off her bike.

“Then, very, very un-fortunately, this was just at the point where there was a hoarding in the pavement. The hoarding was slightly too close to the edge of the pavement. I don’t think that made a difference. What made a difference was that the hoarding was there, so Philippine had nowhere to go.

“In terms of the road layout, this was very difficult. These were narrow lanes. I don’t think there is an easy answer to that.

“What we would like, of course, is to have cyclists in a separate cycle lane. It would be safer for cyclists, and motorists wouldn’t have the potential in the same way for this appalling experience of perhaps colliding with a cyclist.

“But we are in a city with too many people, too many vehicles, too little space.

“I’m going to write to TfL to encourage an innovative response to the problems of this junction. When I say innovative, I mean: ‘Try to think of something that hasn’t been thought before.’ This isn’t a situation where I can see an easy answer.

“The other matter about which I’m going to make a report is the education of cyclists. I think we could change our culture. I appreciate that change has already begun. But I want to support that change, so that cyclists know instinctively how dangerous some of these manoeuvres are. I think a great deal more can be done.”

In another case, the layout of the Gray’s Inn Road junction at King’s Cross was criticised by the bereaved boyfriend of cyclist Min Joo Lee, and the driver of the lorry involved in the collision that claimed her life two years ago.

Both men told the inquest into her death that the junction layout was a factor and have criticised Transport for London for not doing enough to protect cyclists.

Coroner Mary Hassell recorded a verdict of death by road traffic collision at Poplar Coroner’s Court, and the two men embraced afterwards.

Ms Lee, aged 24, died from serious head injuries after being struck by a lorry driven by Terence Gibbs at the junction of Pentonville Way and Gray’s Inn Road on 3 December 2011.

Mr Gibbs, a truck driver with decades of experience, told the inquest that the road layout was “outdated.”

He said: “I’ve done that route hundreds of times and I still do it now. You’ve got to make the Gray’s Inn Road slip road into one lane. There’s no cycle lanes – there’s nothing down there for cyclists.”

Ms Lee’s boyfriend told the court: “Transport for London is encouraging people to cycle more – but the roads are not safe enough. The same accidents are going to happen. I don’t think TfL are doing enough to make things better.”

CCTV evidence showed a bus and a minicab had stopped in the green “advanced stopped zone” box reserved for cyclists to give them a head-start at the traffic lights, while a report by the Metropolitan Police’s road accident investigation unit found that Mr Gibbs could not have seen Ms Lee because she was so close to the front of the lorry at the lights.

The footage shows Ms Lee pushing off while restricted by heavy traffic before the tipper truck hit her and she died of the “highest possible level of head injuries.”

The coroner said that Mr Gibbs could not reasonably have been expected to spot Ms Lee.

“It is in some ways unsurprising that the collision took place because this was such a busy junction,” she said. “Ultimately, cyclists and trucks don’t mix. The best possible way of having to avoid collision is to separate them.”

Another coroner has warned cyclists about the danger of riding up the nearside of trucks. Dr Shirley Radcliffe spoke out after recording that cyclist Katharine Giles, 35, suffered a “traumatic road death” after colliding with a tipper as it turned left in Victoria on 8 April last year.

The coroner said: “I can highlight once again the danger of coming up on the near-side of lorries. It’s been recognised as causing many deaths in London.”

Westminster Coroner’s Court heard how Dr Giles cycled up the inside of the truck as it waited at traffic lights in Palace Street to turn left into Victoria Street.

CCTV pictures not shown in court were said to give a “very clear view” of the incident, which happened about 8.25am. They showed the truck, which was loaded with spoil from a construction site, had its left indicator on. An audible warning that the lorry was turning left was sounding.

Elsewhere, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe told BBC London that people were being forced to cycle on overcrowded roads because of TfL’s high public transport fares and Congestion Charge.

“If you’ve got someone who can’t afford to take a car into the congestion zone – if they did, you can’t park it anyway. Some people they’ve got limited money and they can’t pay for public transport. I understand why they take the choice – it wouldn’t be mine,” he said.