London Mayor Must Tackle London’s Lethal Truck Epidemic

Dated: Monday June 2nd 2014

As yet another truck kills yet another cyclist on London’s roads Stop Killing Cyclists calls on the London Mayor to take immediate action to stop the carnage.

The London Mayor must urgently focus resources on tackling London’s horrifying dangerous truck epidemic.

In just one pilot project by the Metropolitan Police last winter they found 70% of targeted trucks stopped were driven illegally.

It is estimated that up to 30% of all trucks being driven in London were in an illegally dangerous state or being driven illegally.

When Stop Killing Cyclists met with the Metropolitan Police in February we were told a recruitment moratorium was in place in the truck enforcement team and in the Roadsafe dangerous driving reporting scheme.

Donnachadh McCarthy, Stop Killing Cyclists Co-founder, said,

“Our hearts go out to the family of yet another cyclist killed on London’s roads.

Stop Killing Cyclists held a demonstration at Vauxhall Cross in December 2013, following the 6 awful November tragedies, calling for greater enforcement of truck safety regulations and emergency segregated cycle lanes to be installed at left-hand turn junctions like Vauxhall Cross and Elephant & Castle.”

He added:

“The Mayor must immediately tackle the illegal dangerous truck epidemic on London’s roads and set a 2 year target to reduce illegality to a maximum of 1%, from its current estimated level of 30%.

It is time to call an end to this complacency and false priorities. The Mayor must target the killers not the victims.”

Press Contact: Donnachadh McCarthy
Telephone: 07947 8842 99

Note to editors:

1. Stop Killing Cyclists is the direct action protest group set up after the recent spate of cyclist killings in London. They arranged the mass Die-In at TfL HQ where 1,500 cyclists laid down in the road in protest at lack of safety investment in London.

2. The London Boroughs including Lambeth where today’s tragedy took place are responsible for 95% of London’s roads, whereas the London Mayor and TfL control the remaining 5% i.e. the very large arterial routes.

3. Lambeth Council has not installed a single meter of segregated cycle-lane in the 4 years since the last election.

4. A recent FOI survey by Stop Killing Cyclists revealed that 24 London Boroughs had installed ZERO meters of segregated cycle-lanes since the last elections in 2010. See http://StopKillingCyclists.org.uk/WallOfDeathFoi

5. Link to pictures and press coverage of December’s Vauxhall Cross Die-In Protest: http://StopTheKilling.org.uk/VauxhallDemo

6. Pictures shared with Stop Killing Cyclists by Paulius Štutas: