Cycle accident on Tooley Street

Does anyone have any information about the closure of Tooley Street this morning? As I cycled past police were everywhere and there was a bicycle trapped under a dump truck. No sign of the cyclist. Hoping it was not a fatal accident. Any information appreciated...

One of my colleagues saw the cyclist being taken away in an ambulance, don't know any more than that though. Fingers crossed they'll be ok.

The Southwark News reported today that a 26 year old woman had a "miraculous escape" after the accident - left with broken bones but thankfully nothing worse.

Phew!

That's a relief! Still broken bones are bad enough! Thanks for letting us know.

I was amazed by another cyclist who cycled at speed through the pedestrian cordon shouting and ringing his bell, he did a single finger salute at the policeman who tried to get him to move out of the emergency services way!!

cyclists never cease to amaze do they

That's shocking! There are a lot of bad habits on the roads (including vehicle drivers AND pedestrians!), interesting results of a London cycling survey run by Time Out in this week's issue. Still some way to go to make the roads safer for all users (Ken are you listening?). Some guidance to drivers, cyclists and pedestrians to respect other users would be very helpful and may go some way to reducing the increasing number of accidents on the roads in London!

Since 7/7 bombing the number of cyclists in London has shot up. As a percentage of the total number of cyclists the accident/death rate has actually gone down since then. There are more accidents but a smaller proportion overall. Yes these are government figures, but you don't see them quoted very often as it might encourage complacency which I do understand. I wonder if we couldn't fit more cycle lanes on the pavements like they do in Australia and other boroughs. They have been widening many of our pavements for very little reason as far as I can see and perhaps this would help, especially if they got rid of the hundreds of badly placed signs and street furniture cluttering up the pavements of Southwark.

Rich T wrote:

Some guidance to drivers, cyclists and pedestrians to respect other users would be very helpful and may go some way to reducing the increasing number of accidents on the roads in London!

There is guidance - it's called the Highway Code. The problem is most powered vehicle road users read it for their test then forget it, and cyclists don't bother becuase they think it doesn't apply.

Flout it badly enough and the driver will get nicked, fined, banned etc. Cyclists seem immune and they guy emntioned earlier seems typical ime. I read the other day how many cyclists were prosecuted in the UK last year for going through red lights. Go on, guess....?


Four


Doesn't help really does it?!

Out there they are also some weird policemen...The other day my boyfriend was lost and saw a policeman across the road and so he thought he was lucky to be able to ask him for his way. So he got off his bike and pushed it across the road as a pedestrian at the green light. When he arrived at his level, the policeman turned back and did not believe my bf walked and automatically assumed he had jumped the red lights. He checked all my boyfriend's address and details and was very rude and laughed at him in disbelief when my bf insisted he had not jumped the lights. In the end he was issued a piece of paper with a warning that he had been searched. And the same time, some lovely ladies jumped the light under his nose and what did he do...nothing! How fair is the system really.