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Northern HGV Safety Guru Demands Political Action To Protect Cyclists

An HGV safety guru is urging northern based politicians to support the rollout of ‘London law’ in a bid to prevent cyclist deaths and the subsequent prosecution of drivers. SM UK Managing Director, Steve MacDonald

, a specialist in safety systems for lorries, has made the call in the wake of Highway Code changes that puts the burden of proof on those behind the lorry wheel. The changes mean drivers are now more vulnerable to prosecution if they turn left and inadvertently strike a cyclist who they could not see on their nearside, causing them a fatal or serious injury.

Cyclists and pedestrians now have more road rights than ever before and the legal onus to spot their presence has shifted to lorry drivers. If they fail to do so and tragedy strikes, then the HGV driver risks life-changing prosecution unless they can prove to a court that it was not their fault.

Mr MacDonald, whose company is based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, said: "This has become even more serious as most lorries have a blind spot. Equally councils across the north from Leeds to Manchester and Newcastle to Hull, are constructing more and more cycle lanes as they seek to promote more ‘cycle-to-work’ and clean air schemes.

“But, unless this goes hand in hand with increased ‘lorry’ safety, then this is a recipe for disaster.”

The industry-standard HALO System created by Mr MacDonald's company has already been fitted to thousands of trucks in response to introduction of the Direct Vision Standard (DVS) permit scheme in London.

But it is only mandatory in the capital. The system uses cameras, lights, sensors, SideScan motion detectors, audible alerts and a 4G recording facility to warn drivers that there is a vulnerable road user in their blind spot, reducing the risk of a fatal collision.

Mr MacDonald added: "Why on earth this ‘DVS standard’ should be confined to London I don’t know. This feels very much like another one of those north south divides where vulnerable road users such as cyclists or pedestrians are less important in the North than the South.

“I am calling on key politicians across the North to support my call for roll out of the London DVS standard and this so-called ‘London law'. It needs to happen for safety’s sake."

In a recent study by Cambridge University, research across several fleet trucks indicated that Halo's motion detector - which can identify a cyclist or pedestrian beside the vehicle - reduced the number of incidents by 84%.

The DVS scheme, administered by Transport for London, gives vehicles a one to five star-rating that indicates how ‘visually safe’ a lorry is. It is only operational within the M25 but there is a £500 fine for HGV drivers entering the Capital without a special permit or a minimum one-star vehicle safety rating.

Alina Tuerk, a strategy and planning manager with Transport for London, said: "Our ideal outcome would be that as schemes get introduced at national and an international level, those schemes eventually converge with the London-based scheme."