Cyclists given life saving advice at safety awareness event
Published 30 September 2010
Southwark Council and the police addressed the growing number of cycle casualties with a special training session on the dangers of large vehicles.
About 50 cyclists were offered road safety training and advice in relation to HGVs and large vehicles.
In attendance at the event yesterday were council road safety officers and police officers.
Councillor Barrie Hargrove, cabinet member for transport, environment and recycling at Southwark Council, said: "As a Southwark resident who's just completed a cycle safety training course, I do find it alarming the number of cyclist casualties that involve heavy goods vehicles.
"A massive factor in collisions of these kinds can be put down to the lack of awareness of both cyclists and large vehicle drivers of each other. Anything we can do to create a better understanding of other road users will help here and I hope many people take up this offer of free training."
Southwark Council and their partners are committed to reducing the numbers of accidents and casualties on the roads that involve cyclists. The council offers a number of schemes, including
- training cyclists on road safety and large vehicle awareness
- training large vehicle drivers on cycle awareness
- offering free lessons to all new cyclists in the borough, whether resident or visitor
Of the total number of people injured on Southwark's roads, 18% are cyclists and the vast majority of these are males aged between 25 and 59.
Cyclists are the only group of road users to suffer an increase (12% up on the 1994-98 baseline) in the numbers who have been seriously injured or killed on Southwark roads. The increase in casualties, however, should be seen in context of the growing popularity of cycling. Since 2000 there has been a 91% increase in the number of people making cycle trips each day. (These figures exclude the new London cycle hire scheme)
Over the last 5 years cyclist casualties in Southwark have accounted for 9% of all fatalities, 17% of all serious casualties and 18% of all slight casualties. In 2010 there have been 2 fatalities involving cyclists and HGVs/Large Vehicles.
