When: Thursday, October 12th, 5.30pm to 7pm
Where: Horton Street, W8 7NX
Stop Killing Cyclists will be staging a Die-In Vigil and Protest outside Kensington & Chelsea Town Hall, on Thursday 12th October from 5’30pm to 7pm to mark the terrible killing of a young 36 year old woman at Chelsea Bridge.
Our hearts go out to the family of the second cycling victim of a HGV killing in Kensington & Chelsea within a year.
Every week, pedestrians and cyclists are being killed by dangerously designed trucks. It is outrageous that Transport Minister Jesse Norman, whilst acting immediately on the one fixie-bike death in 30 years, has totally failed to act legally make HGVs safer or to take the simple ministerial commencement action to allow TfL to fine drivers who dangerously enter mandatory cycle lanes.
Kensington & Chelsea have responsibility for traffic on Chelsea Bridge.
In our 2015 survey of all London boroughs, Chelsea ranked as the most cyclo-phobic in London.:
* For years they opposed all proposals by the Mayor of London to build protected cycle lanes through the Borough, blocking new safe routes to West and North-West London.
*They have refused to build a single meter of protected cycle lanes on their own roads, insisting that children and pensioners on bikes must share the roads with HGVs and buses.
*They even oppose protected bus-stop cycle bypasses.
* They are one of the few inner London Boroughs refusing to introduce the safe 20 mph speed limit.
Kensington & Chelsea failed the tenants of Grenfell.
For years, they have also lethally failed to protect the thousands of kids, adults and pensioners who want to cycle in the borough.
Our Die-In is demanding:
1/ Kensington & Chelsea must stop its disgraceful opposition to all of the proposed London Mayor’s protected cycle highways through the Borough.
2/ TfL must urgently revisit the designs for Chelsea Bridge Junction and bring them up to Go Dutch standards.
3/ The Transport Minister must stop opposing the introduction of long demanded regulations for safer HGV truck design and legislate urgently to get lethal blind HGVs off our roads and also issue the commencement order to enable TfL to fine HGV trucks and traffic that illegally drive into mandatory cycle lanes. Too many pedestrians and people cycling are being killed week after week by them.
There were 26 crashes at Chelsea Bridge Junction last year, the largest of any junction in the Borough.
21 year old Prince Filippo Corsini was killed by a HGV truck on Kensington High Street in November 2016.
Press Contact: Donnachadh McCarthy 07947 884299