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Broken bike (CC licensed image by garryknight, www.flickr.com)Cyclist’s death down to ‘moment’s lapse of concentration’ says coroner
An inquest has heard that the most significant factor contributing to the death of cyclist Federica Baldassa was ‘a moment’s lapse of concentration’ reports the London Evening Standard. The Italian was crushed to death by a lorry in Holborn in February.
Senior coroner Mary Hassell said: “I’m a cyclist myself and it only takes a moment’s lapse of concentration and I think that’s what happened here.”
Baldassa, who had worked with Vivienne Westwood in Milan, had been celebrating with a friend after learning that her internship at fashion supplier TNT Showroom had been turned into a permanent job.
Her friend Anna Udall told the inquest:
“She was excited and on top of the world and she was hoping to go to Moscow for a fashion trip. She was planning on starting the next stage of her life by handing in her notice at the Riding House Cafe where she was waitressing.”
Baldassa was below the legal alcohol blood limit to drive a car, but as she turned off Vernon Place into Bloomsbury Square, she was pulled under the wheels of a lorry which was also turning left and killed instantly.
CCTV shown to the court showed Baldassa cycle towards the delivery lorry before moving up its left-hand side as it began to turn.
Coroner Mary Hassell told the court: “It was surprising to me that Federica carried on cycling when the lorry was indicating and started to turn. I’m afraid I think that is the most significant contributory factor.”
Collision investigator, Paul De Neys, said Baldassa would have been visible in two of lorry driver Marek Sewilo’s mirrors for no more than a second and a half, but pointed out that at that moment, Sewilo should have been looking in front of him.
Hassell agreed, saying: “I can’t identify anything to do with the driving of the lorry that was a contributory factor in the collision.”
Simon Wickenden, a Traffic Management Officer with the Met Police, told the court there had been 33 injuries at the junction in the past 10 years – 11 involving pedestrians and 11 involving cyclists. However, he said that there was no distinct pattern to indicate a particular design problem or lighting issue.
Wickenden said that banning left-turning vehicles would merely increase the risk on the alternative route and with the incident having taken place shortly after 9pm, banning heavy goods vehicles during peak hours would not have prevented it either.
A vigil and die-in was held in memory of Baldassa by campaign group Stop Killing Cyclists in February. She is one of eight cyclists killed on London’s roads so far this year.
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
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27 comments
@opus,
This image may be the ideal, but you won't find many pedestrians willing to try and assert their right!
In theory! a cycle lane on the main carriageway is part of the road and YOU must not turn across it to enter a drive or another road if it is occupied. If the cycle lane is on the pavement(sidewalk) and shared with Pedestrians fuck knows, the above image is about pedestrians and there is no equivalent for cyclists. Usually there are give way signs that suggest that a cyclist should ceed, bear In mind pedestrians don't have to but do, also a car often has to cross a dashed white line to turn into a side road which by implication means they have to give way????
The above does assume that drivers actually a) know the highway code, most don't, or know very little, they think they know it... b) Drivers actually give a shit, which it is clear most really don't, as witnessed by how behaviour changes when police are about.
OK, I'm a Yank so there are some finer points of UK driving and cycling laws I do not understand.
Here in the States we have several different approaches to bike lanes and turning traffic. One is cyclists have right of way all the way through the intersection and vehicles making turning movements must yield to bicycles in the bike lane, another is vehicles making turning movements must merge into the bike lane (yielding to bike traffic just like merging into another lane of motor vehicle traffic) and make the turn as close to the curb as possible. When "as close to the curb as possible" is not all the way into the bike lane the driver still must yield to bicycles in the bike lane. In some states AFRAP laws require drivers to treat the side of the road as a bike lane because there is a de jure bike lane even where there is not a de facto bike lane.
So the question is what is the UK law about vehicles turning across bikes, the actual law, not the way it is sorta enforced.
At junctions DON'T ride up the inside of large vehicles. Simples.
I've had f*ckwit cyclists push past me only to squeeze along a narrow gap between kerb and large vehicle as said large vehicle starts to move off. Kamikazi riders.
Katie Melua could...
Sorry but I call bullshit.
If there are a substantial amount of injuries at a junction over a period of time, and at least one fatality, then there is something wrong with the design, and considering there are fundamental design flaws with how the uk's roads are engineered the guys statement is untrue.
Substantial compared to what? You can't tell if it's abnormal if you are not specifying some baseline to compare it with.
(Re DAD - most of the vehicles liveried DAD are under agency with Norbert Dentressangel)
Re riding up the inside of large vehicles at junctions with a left hand turn option, given that the infrastructure doesn't currently exist sufficiently to either segregate vulnerable users or offer an escape route, then education, common sense and road sense have to come to the fore until such time that the Authorities finally actually do something.
We expend great care and attention when designing our roads (by using angled kerbs, long feeder roads etc.) so that as a motorist “momentary lapses of concentration” are not punishable by instant death.
The same care should be extended to people on bikes who are at far greater risk.
I keep seeing cyclists doing exactly this. On Friday, in Pall Mall it was only down to some seriously sharp reactions / good observation, from a tipper truck driver, that I wasn't first on the scene of another one. Even the cyclist admitted 'he was miles away' when he did it. It was very close to being a nasty one :O. R.I.P. to the young lady involved in this case, and you have to feel for the driver too.
It's not a momentary lapse to undertake a vehicle at a junction that's just poor bikesense unfortunately - the absolute easiest way to stop this type of death is by education, partly because it's cheaper (therefore more likely to actually happen) but also because it can have an instant effect.
A) it is exactly a momentary lapse of concentration
B) which shouldn't cause anyone to die
C) WTF is bikesense?
I'll assume you've never misjudged anything ever, shall I? Never spilt a drink, or tripped on something? Never made a typo? How much education would prevent you from ever doing so? And how do you propose to roll this 'education' out to everyone in the world?
We do not need "cheaper" - we need to do it correctly. Anything else is simply moving the furniture on the Titanic.
Could be them, but the branding on the lorry did look different ... perhaps just an old lorry. Didn't get the reg no., too concerned with self preservation and making sure no-one else on bikes tried to go up the inside (university campus nearby, so lots of foreign students on bikes about).
The branding was abbreviated "D.A.D" as per their website so good chance it was them.
Might just ping an email anyway.
"I’m afraid I think that is the most significant contributory factor"
erm no... the most contributory factor is that our infrastructure PUTS cyclists up the inside of turning lorries... unlike that in sensible countries which have decided that a moments lapse in concentration should NOT have fatal consequences...
Sustainable Safety, not victim blaming.
Cyclists have to take responsibility for their actions regardless of the quality of the infrastructure they choose to use.
And just this morning I got to a T-junction behind a lorry that positioned itself in the middle of the road ... no indicators. This junction joins onto a road that has a (road based) cycle lane on both sides of the road. Due to the lorries positioning there was plenty of space to go down the left hand side (15ft +). But I'm aware of the dangers after reading all the horror stories on here and elsewhere, so I stayed well back. Sure enough, lorry driver turns left - without indicating at any point - and due to the angle of the road his rear wheels actually mount the left hand pavement by a good 3-4ft.
This was in St. Andrews, Scotland, and the lorry had" D.A.D. gloucester" company branding ... but I've not been able to determine which company this is. I followed this lorry for a couple of miles and not once did it use its indicators, at this junction or a roundabout. What chance have us cyclists go if drivers, whether professional drivers or not, can't be arsed to use their indicators to let us and other traffic know where they are going.
Do you think it could be this company? http://www.dad-online.co.uk/
I would send an email to the company, specially if you have the registration no. I have done it before , they always say they will look at it, although I don't know whether they ever did.
Capture_8.PNG
http://www.dad-online.co.uk/
based in Ashchurch, Tewkesbury...
https://goo.gl/maps/UBa30
Agreed, a person should not need their spidey senses to be at 100% all the time just in order to survive.
This is WHY UK needs space4cycling to protect people on bikes and give them the time and space to cycle relaxed rather than being on Defcon 1 permanently.
I still say that those temporary concrete roadworks barriers should be dumped on junctions to give that protection. It would be much more useful than a LGV ban that rogue operators will ignore in favour of a quick buck
I agree that spidey senses are not necessary but seeing and hearing skills should definitely be at 100% all the time when cycling. If a lorry is indicating left and even has an audible warning, as in this case, you are asking for trouble if you cycle down the lorry's left hand side. Sounds like the cyclist's fault. Exacerbated by the fact that her judgement was impaired, however marginally, by alcohol. This death was not due to a lack of infrastructure. It was due to a cyclist not taking responsibility for their own safety.
I've been cycling for 15 years. If we are to improve the relationship between car drivers and cyclists, we must stop these reactionary die-ins that just aggravate motorists, especially when in this case nobody waited to hear the facts from an unbiased source.
Baldassa may have made a mistake but it should not have carried a death sentence.
Proper segregation and safer junctions, now.
It's tragic that a moment's loss of concentration from anyone, whether they're in charge of a bike or a motor vehicle, can result in someone's death. Proper infrastructure can help stop this happening. RIP
What sort of infrastructure do you envisage preventing this sort of situation?
There are several things already seen in London that could. Filtered permeability would help prevent HGVs and bikes using the same routes. Protected lanes prevent bikes and motor vehicles from mixing on the same roads. Separate signalling at junctions for motor vehicles and bikes can also reduce conflict. A combination of these things would prevent these incidents from occurring so regularly, even when someone makes a mistake.
Banning lorries is probably not going to happen, because large and heavy things need to be delivered.
Sounds like banning bicycles from roads to me.
Even if the operators of the motor vehicles or the bicycles have a momentary lapse of concentration and don't see the signal? Or if the signals are timed so that they become a complete deal breaker for cyclists forcing them to slow down so that cyclists become used to jumping them?
They might. So might training cyclists not to go up the inside of vehicles at junctions.
Perhaps there ought to be more emphasis on the right of cyclists to ride centre lane, safely.
Can you provide any evidence that mass cycling can be brought about WITHOUT infrastructure? Or that education increases the number of people riding bikes in current conditions?
Face it - you've lost the argument. People do not want to cycle in your world, unless you think 5% is a success.
This is worth a look for starters:
https://vimeo.com/86721046