Boris nearly wiped out

prj45

Now this is some freak accident.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009 ... is-cycling

(well, I say accident the lorry driver was clearly pushing his truck too fast over the speed hump, he should've held back instead of trying to overtake the pack of cyclists)

always_tyred

There was never enough room for that move. Speed humps, overtaking around a left hand bend. If there was oncoming traffic (further around that blind bend) where exactly was the truck driver going to go?

AndyManc

What a f****** trucker, he was flying over the speed humps, obviously made the rear doors unhitch themselves, he should be charged with dangerous driving.

The roads are full of Muppets like this. :evil:



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AndyManc

London mayor Boris Johnson in near-miss cycling incident




Boris Johnson and his transport adviser were involved in a near miss while cycling in east London yesterday after a truck nearly dragged a car into the path of their bikes.

The mayor of London, a keen cycling enthusiast, was on one of his regular scouting expeditions around London looking for flagship cycle routes with his team when a lorry's backdoor swung open and hooked into a parked car, according to Johnson's spokesman.

Just minutes earlier, transport minister Lord Andrew Adonis was among those cycling with the mayor as they toured to see where best to place cycle Super Highways", which are designated to make it easier and safer for cyclists to get around the capital.

The car was dragged along the street and was "catapulted" right in the middle of the cycling party, just behind Johnson.

Kulveer Ranger, Johnson's director of transport, was left shaken after narrowly escaping being hit.

Peter Hendy, the commissioner for Transport for London, was also in the group. No one was hurt.

Johnson, who next week will launch London's summer of cycling to promote two wheels as a "stylish and desirable way to travel", said:

"I am relieved that no one was hurt, but this incident reinforces the need for us to make London's roads safer for cyclists, which I am determined to do and to make London the best city for cyclists in Europe."

The mayor said Super Highways would provide a "central role" by providing clearly demarcated routes for cyclists that "lorry drivers and others will be aware of".

Johnson is investing most of the £111m earmarked for cycling this year into the new routes, coupled with funding his Velib-style bike hire scheme which is due to be put into place next year.





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Bunneh

Good lord, he was a lucky begger. Seems a lot of drivers have that 'zoom around the streets' attitude these days. I'm a big fan of Boris, yes he acts like a buffoon but there's just something so pleasing about the man.

prj45

I'm seriously thinking of finding out if that lorry driver is being charged with dangerous driving, and if not, making a complaint against him.

lost_in_thought

Jesus H Christ they were lucky. What a complete idiot tht driver was - I hope they charge him with driving without due care or at least something... as said above there was really no room for that pass.

MrBlond

+ 1

laughingboy

While the footage is terrifying, what it shows most of all is that the lorry driver doesn't think he needs to slow down for speed bumps.

If he had treated the speed bumps with seriousness and slowed down, the back door wouldn't have flipped open. That's what caused the accident - driving too fast over speed bumps.

Apart from that, it is difficult to say anything for certain. From what little one can make out, there was probably enough room to pass. There are two lanes, and the lorry moved into the second lane to overtake. I know lorries sometimes overtake without giving cyclists enough room, but I don't think that this applies here.

AllTheGear

Two lanes? Looks like the lorry was on the wrong side of the road to me. There are cars parked facing the other way suggesting this isn't a one way street.

+1 for the driver being a muppet. Even without his doors opening, if another muppet had been heading the other way at 30mph he would have run all the cyclists down.

prj45

laughingboy wrote:

Apart from that, it is difficult to say anything for certain. From what little one can make out, there was probably enough room to pass. There are two lanes, and the lorry moved into the second lane to overtake. I know lorries sometimes overtake without giving cyclists enough room, but I don't think that this applies here.

Are you from the "damage limitation for really crap/bordering on insane/homocidal HGV drivers" authority?

The driver should have his license revoked IMO, he's clearly not cut out for piloting a seven tonne vehicle through london's streets, or any street anywhere for that matter.

Bassjunkieuk

prj45 wrote:

laughingboy wrote:

Apart from that, it is difficult to say anything for certain. From what little one can make out, there was probably enough room to pass. There are two lanes, and the lorry moved into the second lane to overtake. I know lorries sometimes overtake without giving cyclists enough room, but I don't think that this applies here.

Are you from the "damage limitation for really crap/bordering on insane/homocidal HGV drivers" authority?

The driver should have his license revoked IMO, he's clearly not cut out for piloting a seven tonne vehicle through london's streets, or any street anywhere for that matter.

+1, Speed humps are there to reduce the speed of vehicles, the only way your going to get such a reaction as this is if you are obviously speeding! The violence with which that cab and the lorry bounces around gives you an idea of just how fast he was going. Let along to try to overtake a group of cyclist on a bend with park cars on the opposite side. Even with his higher cab position I doubt he could claim he thought he had a safe window to make the pass.
I'd hope the police are involved as it an RTA and that they and the truck drivers employer come down on him like a ton of bricks.

laughingboy

All I am saying is that the lorry driver drove too fast over the speed bumps. He drove stupidly, and there is no excuse. In this respect, the footage clearly shows that his driving was very poor.

But, in my opinion, the fact that he then overtook some cyclists is a separate issue. You cannot tell from the footage whether it was safe to pass - you cannot see how far ahead he can see, and you simply cannot tell if the manoeuvre would have been safe. If it hadn't been for the earlier reckless driving over the speed bump, he might have passed them safely.

Who knows if the real cause was not a faulty lock on his trailer, or someone tampering with the doors? So I reserve judgement, except to say that it looked like he could have driven over the speed bumps at a far safer speed.

As I said, it looks like he moved into the oncoming lane to pass the cyclists. What more can you ask in terms of giving space?

always_tyred

laughingboy wrote:

While the footage is terrifying, what it shows most of all is that the lorry driver doesn't think he needs to slow down for speed bumps.

If he had treated the speed bumps with seriousness and slowed down, the back door wouldn't have flipped open. That's what caused the accident - driving too fast over speed bumps.

Apart from that, it is difficult to say anything for certain. From what little one can make out, there was probably enough room to pass. There are two lanes, and the lorry moved into the second lane to overtake. I know lorries sometimes overtake without giving cyclists enough room, but I don't think that this applies here.

I think you are very wrong.

In order to pass the cyclists with sufficient room (assuming there was sufficient room), the truck came close enough to parked cars to hook one with a door half the width of the cab (requiring that the door overlapped substantially with the bodywork of the car). Taking wing mirrors into account, that probably put him within a foot or so of the parked cars.

Not enough room, by far. By about 5 feet, at least, if my understanding of the highway code is correct. No room for error, no room for someone cracking a door open, stepping into the road, no room for a cyclist to dodge a pothole.

Also, we was about half way past the cyclists by the time he was in trouble. This means he would have had to continue on the wrong side of the road, around a bend, for about the same distance again. Does anyone know where this is? Where is the next junction? Was there any point in passing at all?

This was a shocking piece of driving. No question.

gb155

s*** thats scary

laughingboy

Always Tyred wrote:

I think you are very wrong.

Perhaps you are right.

I've been wrong before.

But it is all too easy to condemn the driver for what might have been an accident. Lorry doors shouldn't spring open, even if he went over a speed bump like Evil Kneivel.

I always try when something confirms my prejudice - lorry drivers are shocking - to keep my prejudice in check. The fact is, most of us are bad drivers, and some of us are bad cyclists. Let's not be too quick to judge.

AndyManc

Laughing boy is right (sort of) ... well done, this photo shows the truck driver was well away from the cyclists, but he was still too close to the parked cars.



The driver was still a w***** though



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always_tyred

No - see those dotted lines? Parking bays. Take that distance away from the kerb, add a few feet, add a lorry, add a couple of cyclists, say 2 abreast and how much room is there?

NWLondoner

It wasn't Ken driving was it :twisted:

NWLondoner

It wasn't Ken driving was it :twisted:

beegee

By the way, isn't it pedalled ? Guardian had 'peddled'.

grayo59

beegee wrote:

By the way, isn't it pedalled ? Guardian had 'peddled'.

Peddled is correct - but perhaps instead of

... round the corner peddled Boris ...

it would be more accurate to write

... Boris, round the bend, with a view to peddle his new cycling scheme, pedalled ...

Harry182

Additionally scary (the accident not the Guardian's spelling) because if BJ hadn't been involved the whole thing would probably never have been reported. Makes you wonder how many times similar accidents have happened.

dilemna

Boris to lorry driver : "Crikey, umm, umm, crikey! Have I got some news for you!"

Does anyone know whether the police attended?

cee

:shock:

marchant

I was wondering what we would've heard if that camera had audio? A rant at the cyclists from the driver, perhaps? BTW did Boris choose his companions because of their names; Lord Adonis, Kulveer Ranger 8)

OldSkoolKona

Flip, just seen the footage. :shock: I think its a simple case of an impatient lorry driver - there wasn't enough room and the fact there are speed humps there suggest there is an issue with speeding vehicles. Typical 'Must Overtake Cyclists' behaviour.

Harry182 I think you're right though on the reason for the coverage, but 'good' (if any incident like that can be good) that the Mayor and TfL bods got to see close at hand the dangers that cyclists can face.. (although hopefully won't put people off cycling )

Apparently the accident happened on the aptly named Narrow Street...

I was listening to the coverage of it this morning on BBC Radio London, which had an interview with Kulveer. Amazingly the presenter Joanne didn't make any negative comments about cyclists this time and was quite positive, learnt her lesson from the last time perhaps...

One worrying thing is the reaction that this means we need lots more cycle lanes - seems to be a similar reaction to all incidents involving cyclists recently. (ie Cyclists are the problem, get them off the roads) More green paint on its own is not the solution (as this fatality on the A4 sadly shows), better designed roads and education (of both drivers and cyclists) are.

Eau Rouge

Harry182 wrote:

Additionally scary (the accident not the Guardian's spelling) because if BJ hadn't been involved the whole thing would probably never have been reported. Makes you wonder how many times similar accidents have happened.

About 3,000 people die on the UK's roads every year, the vast majority of which are not reported in the newspapers either.

AndyManc

A bit more video .............

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJKufJSazjg&feature=channel_page


+ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1187789/The-moment-bike-riding-Boris-Johnson-nearly-got-flattened-near-miss-crash-lorry.html?ITO=1490

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Garz

The driver was an absolute tosser!

With that kind of evidence he should be banned for a year and made to resit his test aswell as safety awareness courses.

downwardslide

According to that mail article, the lorry's doors were held shut with a coat hangar ffs!!
The driver has been reported for driving without due care and attention and keeping a vehicle in a dangerous condition, expect this will just result in a fine and posibly 3 points, despite the fact that he could quite easily have killed several people.

I loved the quote ffrom boris though

"If that had been a ‘Super Highway’ the driver would have been aware there would be cyclists and it wasn’t safe to be catapulting cars about."

So, if there are no cyclist around, it's fine to be throwing cars around with impunity is it?