See Me Save Me - Eliminating Lorry Danger

See Me Save Me is a campaign to eliminate deaths and injuries caused by collisions involving HGVs, with a focus on the most vulnerable road users (pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists).

See Me Save Me work to prevent the blaming of victims (for not wearing hats, jumping lights, not having insurance etc etc) and focus on the danger of the vehicles.

• They have been involved in the development of safer lorry standards with industry and regulators, in particular CLOCS. 
• They are also members of the ‘Action on Lorry Danger’ working group which includes CyclingUK, LCC and Living Streets. 

See Me Save Me was started in 2009 by Kate Cairns following the death of her sister Eilidh.

CLOCS

The Construction Logistics and Cyclist Safety report was released in February 2013 and is the basis for the CLOCS programme. The CLOCS standards include a range of measures to reduce risk:

• Requirements for safer vehicles to maximise vision
• Driver checks and training
• Fleet management and route planning
• Proper investigation and reporting of collisions

In London, adoption of CLOCS is now a requirement in many public sector contracts for clients including Crossrail, TfL and the Greater London Assembly. However widespread adoption by the public and private sector across the UK is needed to prevent the pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists being killed or injured by collisions with HGV.

See Me Save Me's campaign

See Me Save Me are raising awareness of lorry danger and campaigning for the adoption of preventative measures and standards such as CLOCS across the UK:

• Build relationships with industry and public bodies across the UK, especially in major cities such as Birmingham, Manchester, Bristol, Cambridge, Newcastle, Leeds, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Cardiff and Belfast.
• Collaborate with pedestrian, cyclist and residents groups to campaign for a reduction in lorry danger.
• Keep a record of those killed or seriously injured by HGVs to show the scale of the problem.

Lorry danger has consistently been identified by our supporters as a major concern and one of the top priorities for campaigning. In 2016 we will be working with See Me Save Me to help launch their campaign to have CLOCS standards adopted widely and for safer lorries across the UK.

Please join their campaign by signing up for email updates here: http://www.seemesaveme.org/

Safer Lorries Consultation

Dear Friends,

TfL consultation on Safer Lorries needs your support!

Last year seven out of nine cyclist fatalities in London involved lorries. Improving lorry safety was one of our four demands.

TfL are now proposing that HGV's should be fitted with extra vision panels in the passenger door so the driver can see adjacent road users. This may reduce the 'left hook' collisions which have resulted in many cyclist and pedestrian fatalities.

The consultation includes two options:

• Option A - Differential road charging to encourage higher vision lorries
• Option B - Restricting non-compliant vehicles (a ban or partial ban)

A full ban would be most effective to keep dangerous lorries off our streets. A partial ban would shift danger to those cycling outside restricted times. Limiting lorries to so called 'safer routes' would inevitably mean allowing dangerous HGVs to mix with cyclists due to the lack of continuously segregated routes.

Respond to the consultation here.

Please support these measures and encourage friends to do the same.

Kind regards,


Fred


P.s. These measures have been bought forward in response to cross party pressure from members of the London Assembly. In particular, this campaign has been taken up by Darren Johnson, Caroline Pidgeon and Andrew Boff. In the run up the London election we will be looking to hear from all parties (and independents) about their plans for cycle safety - if you're a representative we'd love you to get in touch, just reply to this email!

---
[1] http://saveourcyclists.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/call-on-mayor-and-gla-to-end-lorry.html
[2] http://saveourcyclists.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/our-2015-demands-reviewing-mayors.html

London Mayor's response to Save Our Cyclists' demands

Cycle safety and HGVs

Question No: 2015/2647
Darren Johnson

While your recent announcement on cycle safety and HGVs contains some welcome measures there is a very strong feeling that you should do more. Many hundreds of Londoners have been in touch with me since your announcement in support of the following measures.

• A rush hour lorry ban.
• The construction industry to adopt 'CLOCS' safety standards to prevent further deaths.
• Confidential reporting of bad practice to be rolled out to all HGV drivers, irrespective of whether their employer wants to take part.
• Stronger enforcement so that operators are not allowed to put profits before lives by allowing unlicensed, untrained lorry drivers, or unsafe vehicles, to operate on our roads.

Will you agree to implement these?

Written response from the Mayor 

I strongly support any measures to improve the safety of vulnerable road users. TfL is already delivering road safety improvements for all road users, including cyclists, but while there are no easy or quick fixes that can be applied, we believe we have a strong programme in place to make London’s roads safer for all road users.

I have asked TfL to examine the practicality and potential implications of restricting certain vehicles at certain times as part of its wider freight programme. A full assessment of the implications of any peak time restriction is needed to avoid unintended consequences, such as an increase in vans on the road or an increase in HGVs at other times of the day.

I fully support the adoption of the CLOCS Standard by the construction industry and will work with TfL to promote the aims of the CLOCS programme and to encourage construction organisations to commit to adopting the CLOCS Standard.

I support any measure that exposes bad practice and increases our understanding of how incidents occur and what needs to be done to prevent future collisions. CIRAS is a whistleblowing scheme widely used in other transport sectors to allow confidential reporting of bad practice by employees, but does not currently cover HGV operations and is not available to members of the public to raise concerns. I have asked TfL to investigate whether CIRAS would provide any additional benefit to the existing range of measures in place to report, investigate and manage bad practice.

TfL and its partners are committed to enforcing against unsafe operators in London, who are a danger to other road users and who damage the reputation of those operators who work within the law. We work with the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA), the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), City of London Police and other agencies to target those operators we know to have a poor safety record. We have recently set up a Freight Compliance Unit (FCU), formed of officers and staff from TfL, the MPS and DVSA and the FCU shares information on operator compliance in order to ensure that enforcement is intelligence led and our efforts are coordinated.

I encourage Londoners to report any illegal activity or failure to comply with the law via the RoadSafe London website, which is run by the MPS.

Save Our Cyclist's concerns raised with Mayor

Darren Johnson was set to raise Save Our Cyclists concerns at the Mayor's Question Time today (see question below), however the session was disrupted by protesting cabbies.

Hopefully they were able to continue later and we will be back with more details once we have them:

Question Title: Cycle safety and HGVs
Member: Darren Johnson

While your recent announcement on cycle safety and HGVs contains some welcome measures there is a very strong feeling that you should do more. Many hundreds of Londoners have been in touch with me since your announcement in support of the following measures.

• A rush hour lorry ban. 
• The construction industry to adopt 'CLOCS' safety standards to prevent further deaths.
• Confidential reporting of bad practice to be rolled out to all HGV drivers, irrespective of whether their employer wants to take part.
• Stronger enforcement so that operators are not allowed to put profits before lives by allowing unlicensed, untrained lorry drivers, or unsafe vehicles, to operate on our roads.

Will you agree to implement these?

TfL must extend CIRAS to all HGVs working under TfL Contracts

This post is based on a guest post I wrote for the Safer Oxford Street blog here. I've reposted it to keep our supporters up to date with progress:

 
Dear Friends,

Thanks to campaigners like Tom Kearney, Bus Driver X and a Transport Specialist, from January 2016 TfL will be the first public sector transport agency in UK where both train and bus operations will have access to Confidential Safety Reporting. TfL has made the decision to adopt the Confidential Incident Reporting and Analysis System (CIRAS) for all London's buses in part due to campaigning by Tom's blog.

Significantly, this will also be the first time in UK history that the long-standing confidential reporting practice has been transferred from rail-to-road, marking a landmark victory for road danger reduction and also a forward thinking move by TfL they should be applauded for.

Despite welcome improvements to the safety of our buses this does not go far enough: Three cyclists in London have been killed by HGVs operated by TfL's Crossrail contractors since November 2013: Claire Abadie-Hitier, Brian Holt and Maria Karsa. When TfL's Crossrail goes live in 2018, all its rail operations staff will all have access to CIRAS; however currently none of their lorry operators have access to Confidential Safety Reporting during construction of the railway.

Last week TfL showed they have the power to lead the way on HGV safety by announcing glass doors will be fitted as a priority to all lorries working for the Greater London Authority, Transport for London and Crossrail. This is a welcome move which will reduce the risk of 'left hook' incidents by providing more direct vision to the front left of the vehicle where cyclists are often directed by cycle lanes.

Confidential Safety Reporting would compliment vehicle improvements by ensuring safety best practice is adopted throughout the organisation and potential dangers are addressed before they result in serious incidents. Now that TfL will be implementing CIRAS on London's streets we need them to extend this scheme to the most dangerous vehicles —and firstly—to the most dangerous vehicles under contract to TfL and its Crossrail Project.

We need TfL to implement CIRAS for all HGV contractors working for TfL and Crossrail. This move would show TfL and Crossrail leading from the front on one of the most pressing road safety issues faced in London and the UK: Cyclist Fatalities involving HGVs.

Adoption of CIRAS for its HGV subcontactors by TfL would pave the way for widespread adoption of Confidential Safety Reporting by HGV fleets working under contract to public authorities across the United Kingdom, a measure which is accepted best practice and already underpins a culture of safety on the railway.

This call on TfL is supported by the Save Our Cyclists petition which I help lead. We are campaigning for Confidential Safety Reporting to be rolled out to all HGV drivers and that needs a large organisation like TfL to demonstrate that this can be successfully implemented across a large fleet of HGVs.

It is only through the persistence and dedication of campaigners like Tom Kearney and his collaborators from TfL's Bus Operations, the Cycling Community and Transport Professionals that we can achieve the incremental victories which make the impossible achievable and give us hope for a future where avoidable road casualties are no longer a daily occurrence.

Extend CIRAS to TfL-contracted HGVs (including Crossrail) Now!

Fred Smith

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/save-our-cyclists

Clarie Hitier-Abadie, killed by Gordon Plant Hire HGV Working under Contract to TfL

 
References:

[1] http://www.standard.co.uk/news/transport/lorries-face-being-banned-from-turning-left-in-revolutionary-clampdown-aimed-at-preventing-cycle-a2924376.html

[2] http://saveourcyclists.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/higher-safety-standards-needed-for.html

Greens respond to call to end lorry danger

Darren Johnson, a green member of the London Assembly has responded to the call for action on HGVs. He and Jenny Jones AM are supporting our demands for a rush hour lorry ban, CLOCS safety standards, confidential reporting and stronger enforcement.

We welcome his announcement that he will be tabling formal questions to the mayor asking for these measures to be implemented. His message is as follows:

Many thanks for your message. I am responding on behalf of the Green Assembly Members, myself and Jenny Jones AM.

We completely share your concerns and support these safety demands to help eliminate deaths and injuries from HGVs on London’s roads and make cycling safer for everyone. While I welcome the Mayor’s recent announcement on left turns and mirrors, the Mayor and TfL need to do more and I will therefore be tabling a formal question to the Mayor asking him to implement these demands (a rush hour lorry ban, CLOCS safety standards, confidential reporting and stronger enforcement).

Promoting cycling and decreasing road danger have been consistent priorities for the Greens on the London Assembly. We will continue to urge the Mayor to urgently redesign the most dangerous junctions, impose a default London-wide 20mph speed limit, segregate cycle superhighways so that they meet ‘Go Dutch’ standards as well as crucial safety measures for HGVs. 

If you would like to be kept informed about our work on cycling then please email Rachel.Carlill@London.gov.uk and we will add you to our email circulation list (emails are approximately once a month). Please be assured of our continued commitment to making our streets safer and more attractive for cyclists through our work with cycling campaigners, through putting pressure on the Mayor and TfL and through our formal committee work here at City Hall.


Darren Johnson AM
Green Party Member
London Assembly
City Hall
Queens Walk
London SE1 2AA