Cycling casualties still high in Cambs

#297

Author: Mr Benn
Date: Thu, 01 Mar 2012 14:28

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Of the 468 casualties in Cambridgeshire, almost half of them - 218 - were in
the city.

Though only provisional figures for 2011, the data raises concerns about
cyclist safety in Cambridge in a week when the city council pledged its
support to a national cycling campaign.

Casualty reduction officer PC Steve Gedny said the attitude of both drivers
and cyclists needs to change if the number of injured cyclists is to be cut.

"You have the cyclists who say it is all the drivers' fault, then you have
drivers saying it is the cyclists' fault," he said.

"I have been in traffic policing for 20 years and have seen cyclists go
straight through red lights in front of a police car. Then you will have a
driver who will not give a cyclist any room. It's all about changing ?these
attitudes."

The 218 casualties - about 190 of these were slight injuries - is a fall
from 2010's count of 230. Those figures painted a worrying picture of
cyclists being involved in 59 per cent of road accidents in Cambridge. Only
last week, a 56-year-old cyclist was taken to Addenbrooke's with serious
?injuries after colliding with a coach in Trumpington Road.

On top of the figures, hundreds of accidents involving cyclists go
unreported each year.

As part of The Times' Cities Fit For Cycling campaign - prompted after
Cambridge University graduate and reporter at the newspaper Mary Bowers, 27,
collided with a lorry on her way to work in London in November and has been
in a coma ever since - Cambridge City Council has agreed the city should be
first to heed the Times' call.

Cambridge MP and keen cyclist Julian Huppert said an extension of 20mph
zones in the city, being looked at by the council, could ?be beneficial.

"Every one of these accidents is one too many; but we have to keep this is
in perspective. We have the most people cycling in the UK and therefore
considerably more than cycling across the county ?generally," he said.

"We are fortunate that cyclists are well catered for in Cambridge ?with
designated cycle lanes and cycle routes.

"There are, however, more steps we can take to improve the safety of
cyclists on our roads and our Government can do more to achieve this."

PC Gedny, who has been in his new role for two months, advised cyclists to
be "defensive" in ?their cycling.

"If there is a cycling lane down the left-hand side of a lorry and you have
right of way, it doesn't meant you have to go down the side of the lorry.
There is only going to be one winner," he said.

http://www.cambridgefirst.co.uk/home/468_cyclists_were_injured_on_our_roads_last_year_1_1224234

Senior Met officer says TfL could face corporate manslaughter charge in Deep Lee death case

#298

Author: Simon Mason
Date: Thu, 01 Mar 2012 14:31

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QUOTE:

A senior Metropolitan Police traffic officer has confirmed that
corporate manslaughter charges against Transport for London (TfL), the
body responsible for managing and maintaining the capital’s road
network, are among options being studied in connection with the death
last October of Deep Lee at King’s Cross in London, reports The Times.

The 24-year-old student was killed after being hit by a lorry at the
junction of Pentonville Road and York Way. Shortly afterwards, the
Kings Cross Environment blog revealed that a report into pedestrian
safety on the King’s Cross gyratory system, commissioned by TfL in
2008, had made a number of recommendations regarding road layout, none
of which had been acted upon.

That report, written by independent consultants, also warned that
casualties were “inevitable” at the locations surveyed, as well as
highlighting the location where Ms Lee lost her life as an “absolute
priority.”

In October, Will Perrin from the Kings Cross Environment blog called
for corporate manslaughter charges to be brought against TfL, and
later that month met with senior police officers from the Met’s Road
Death Investigation Unit and local politicians, with the meeting
focusing on that specific issue.

Quoted in The Times today, Detective Chief Inspector John Oldham, who
is in charge of the Road Death Investigation Unit, revealed: “There is
a portfolio of offences that might have occurred. Obviously corporate
manslaughter is one of them.”

However, he said that there were problems associated with bringing a
successful prosecution under the relevant legislation, the Corporate
Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007, which he described as “a
badly drafted Act; there are loopholes everywhere.”

There is no news of whether action is to be taken against the driver
of the vehicle involved in the incident, but talking about fatalities
of cyclists in general, DCI Oldham said: “We can’t see this as small
potatoes. London has to make a decision. Does it want cyclists on the
roads? How is it going to make it safe? We need a fully informed
debate.”

Last year, Cotswold Geotechnical became the first organisation to be
successfully prosecuted under the legislation and was fined £385,000.
It lost an appeal and subsequently went into liquidation.

Even the prospect that the police are considering corporate
manslaughter charges – the final decision to proceed rests with the
Crown Prosecution Service – will provide a major embarrassment for TfL
and its chair, Mayor of London Boris Johnson, who despite his promised
‘Cycling Revloution’ has been heavily criticised by opposition
politicians and cycle campaigners for his policy of prioritising motor
vehicle traffic flow.

The Times, which last month launched its Cities Fit For Cycling
campaign, said that its own investigations had revealed that the
section of road where Ms Lee died did not appear to conform to TfL’s
own published Cycling Design Standards, which say that lane widths of
4m to 4.5m “should be avoided except on narrow quiet roads;” the two
lanes in question at the busy King’s Cross junction have a combined
width of 6.2m, added the newspaper.

Last month, London Assembly Members quizzed Mr Johnson on whether the
junction met TfL’s own safety standards. In reply, pointing out that
the layout had bee put in place prior to the publication of that
document, he said it was “best practice document intended to ensure
that consistently high standards are applied to new schemes in order
to reduce barriers to cycling.”

Since Ms Lee’s death, TfL has carried out a strategic review of the
junction and plans for works there to be completed ahead of this
Summer’s Olympic Games. Why it failed to implement the recommendations
of the 2008 report remains, for now, a mystery

http://road.cc/content/news/53751-senior-met-officer-says-tfl-could-face-corporate-manslaughter-charge-deep-lee

--
Simon Mason

Cycling casualties still high in Cambs (re-posted thanks to Simon Mason)

#299

Author: Mr Benn
Date: Thu, 01 Mar 2012 14:52

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