Fatal and serious collisions involving pedal cyclists and trucks in London between 2007 and 2011

ABSTRACT

Objective: Increased numbers of people riding pedal cycles have led to a greater focus on pedal cycle safety. The aim of this article is to explore factors that are associated with fatal and a small number of serious-injury pedal cyclist crashes involving trucks that occurred in London between 2007 and 2011.

Methods: Data were collected from police collision files for 53 crashes, 27 of which involved a truck (≥3.5 tonnes) and a pedal cycle. A systematic case review approach was used to identify the infrastructure, vehicle road user, and management factors that contributed to these crashes and injuries and how these factors interacted.

Results: Trucks turning left conflicting with pedal cyclists traveling straight ahead was a common crash scenario. Key contributory factors identified included the pedal cyclists not being visible to the truck drivers, road narrowing, and inappropriate positioning of pedal cyclists.

Conclusions: Crashes involving trucks and pedal cyclists are complex events that are caused by multiple interacting factors; therefore, multiple measures are required to prevent them from occurring.

KEYWORDS:

• Cyclist
• trucks
• crash
• contributory factors
• road safety
• fatality

Acknowledgments

Data included in this article were originally collected as part of a larger body of work funded by Transport for London that examined pedal cycle crashes occurring in London between 2007 and 2011 (Talbot et. al. 2014). The authors acknowledge the assistance of both Transport for London and the Metropolitan Police Service in providing access to the data used in this article.