Wonder what would it take to give the driver that 'Magic View' that helicopter pilots have. Being able to look 'through' the truck in every direction? I expect it's expensive!
Blind spot
- Thread starter Zebb
- Start date
Do you mean Flourescent dyed Chanel scent before the wet T-Shirt contest?How about windscreen type water jets down the side of the wagon that can be activated on entering towns and city's and works in conjunction with the indicators.
The water could also be given additives for smell or dyes
Drivers of HGVs need to be on the right side of the cab as do most if not all motorists. The safety reasons for this are huge in comparison, the biggest is that many drivers can struggle to position the car correctly with the line marking the center of the road if they are on the wrong side, that inturn can cause head on crashes with drivers on the other side of the road. With HGVs and knowing what you now know about blindspots would any motorway be safe if drivers of HGVs had impared vision when pulling out into the middle lane or merging with traffic? Please look up the dangers of "wrong hand drive" as I'm certain without a doubt it would endanger and harm far far more than it could save.
As for glass doors and glass everything won't add anywhere near what people are hyping it too. If you drive a car place something in the passenger side door pocket and be truthful about how many times you noticed it while driving. Lower than that on most trucks are just steps, you won't see past the steps whatever you do. So unless you redesign the truck any modifications like this will be futile. On this fire engine cab the lower 1/2 of the door is under the line from the seat and steps.
I know you have good intentions but I think some of the ideas floating about you have grabbed and repeated without thinking about them. Is a very tricky balancing act to make a safe road.
This discussion is taking flights of fancy (including my own)
We need accurate figures for the number of injuries and fatalities from left turning vehicles in all major cities.
Also, exactly what are the fatal injuries sustained, the continual call for cycle helmets needs to be challenged because many unthinking people think that they would help, I suspect fatality from head injury to cyclists is not of a significant number.
The BBC is a publicly funded enterprise and I think that the government should just commandeer air time to advertise the danger of getting between a lorry and the railings.
At the moment, I think that many cyclists are lulled into a false sense of security that as long as they have a yellow jacket and helmet, they will be OK.
We need accurate figures for the number of injuries and fatalities from left turning vehicles in all major cities.
Also, exactly what are the fatal injuries sustained, the continual call for cycle helmets needs to be challenged because many unthinking people think that they would help, I suspect fatality from head injury to cyclists is not of a significant number.
The BBC is a publicly funded enterprise and I think that the government should just commandeer air time to advertise the danger of getting between a lorry and the railings.
At the moment, I think that many cyclists are lulled into a false sense of security that as long as they have a yellow jacket and helmet, they will be OK.
Which cannot be used on the construction industry trucks that are so often involved Mike, for the same reason that they cannot have side fences to stop cyclist going underneath. They leave the road onto sites with very uneven rutted surfaces that demand high ground clearances. In addition that sort of cab on a truck considerably lengthens it, creating a new set of problems.
As Clockwise says, it's all a tricky balancing act to reach a suitable compromise. Reaching a compromise that mainly suited bikes, the least used of all vehicles in the UK, would be madness, we have to be realistic.
Well said. A little over a hundred cyclists are killed annually on UK roads, and only a small minority of the deaths involve left turning trucks. A number are hit from behind, especially after dark, some killed though a collision with groups of bikes on narrow road blind bends, plus an assortment of other reasons. This year I believe the left turn accident deaths in London total seven, about half the average total London annual cycling deaths in recent years. Many of those killed were wearing helmets which obviously didn't help, and that's certainly true of the left turn accidents where death is due to body crushing.
Currently some 540,000 cycle journeys are made daily in London on weekdays, so a total of over 140 million journeys a year on working weekdays alone, which rather puts an average of around 14 deaths into perspective, one per 10 million journeys.
That means the average cycle commuter would have to ride to work for nearly 27,000 years for their turn to come round.
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"drivers must sit on right hand side for safety" , so ALL the Left Hand drive vehicles, inc hgv's, are operating UNsafely? Mmm, I think continental drivers might disagree!
What would a glazed cab look like? Wonder no more Why the London Cycling Campaign designed a bike-friendly lorry | Environment | theguardian.com. And there are examples on the road, guess which!
I'm sorry you feel nothing can be done for cyclists as such. Try to bear in mind that Pedestrians make up 51% of the Killed or Seriously Injured on road.
Perhaps we should have an Ad campaign. like the Train Level-Crossing one...children cycling home from school, along the road, then loud truck sound and screen goes black with message "Watch out for Trucks"...would that suit?
What would a glazed cab look like? Wonder no more Why the London Cycling Campaign designed a bike-friendly lorry | Environment | theguardian.com. And there are examples on the road, guess which!
I'm sorry you feel nothing can be done for cyclists as such. Try to bear in mind that Pedestrians make up 51% of the Killed or Seriously Injured on road.
Perhaps we should have an Ad campaign. like the Train Level-Crossing one...children cycling home from school, along the road, then loud truck sound and screen goes black with message "Watch out for Trucks"...would that suit?
It's been rather common knowledge for years. A couple of pages that came up on the first page of searching google for information on lhd uk crashes.
Accidents caused by foreign lorries increase by 10 per cent - Telegraph
LHD HGV 'Blindspot' Crashes Cost £57 Million a Year | Legal Advice | Honest John
If you still aren't convinced try to get car insurance for a LHD car, most insurance companies want nothing to do with them.
Try using Rubber Skirts and Height Adjustable Air Suspension, up on site, down on road
How would Fully Glazing a truck cab make it longer ? Oh, U mean Low Floor, well a Flat Engine is a start.
And "make anything forward of the Trailer or Bed/Box/Body of Rigid visible" if that helps!
Try using Rubber Skirts and Height Adjustable Air Suspension, up on site, down on road
How would Fully Glazing a truck cab make it longer ? Oh, U mean Low Floor, well a Flat Engine is a start.
And "make anything forward of the Trailer or Bed/Box/Body of Rigid visible" if that helps!
Don't forget 51% of KSI's are Pedestrians, which we ALL are.
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Indeed, and it's no coincidence that these are the two groups not trained, tested and licenced. Time to introduce cyclist and pedestrian training with proficiency tests and licencing perhaps?
We've had very large scale TV and newspaper ad campaigns in London and cyclists have just ignored them. Presumably they all think as you seem to, that the accidents are everyone else's fault
I wonder if any of them would have been crossing the road at places other than crossings? No, nobody would be dumb enough to step out into traffic so all the evil motorists must be zooming up on the pavement all the time, it's funny when you think just how rarely you see cars on the pavement and how often they must have attacked people like that
Again all hopelessly impractical Mike. I won't waste any more time explaining, clearly your mind is closed and in any case none of these madcap ideas will ever be adopted.Try using Rubber Skirts and Height Adjustable Air Suspension, up on site, down on road
How would Fully Glazing a truck cab make it longer ? Oh, U mean Low Floor, well a Flat Engine is a start.
And "make anything forward of the Trailer or Bed/Box/Body of Rigid visible" if that helps!
Don't forget 51% of KSI's are Pedestrians, which we ALL are.
Though every death is a tragedy, the rate of cycling deaths is amazingly low*, considering what vulnerable vehicles they are. Our fellow two wheelers, the motorcyclists, have several times our death rate.
* See my post above on the relative safety of cycling.
Seeing as trucks are about £100,000 each..... good luck with getting the transport industry to fork out the billions needed to change all their trucks, just to accommodate the few cyclists stupid enough to cycle up the inside of trucks.
Not to mention the fact that these modified trucks could only replace certain models of trucks.
Not to mention the fact that these modified trucks could only replace certain models of trucks.
Maybe Blind Spots are not the problem, but spots before the eyes, eh? A TFL report from Transport Research Laboratory. Construction lorries 'disproportionately responsible for cyclist deaths' | Life and style | theguardian.com
"Peter Walker
Lorries carrying materials to and from building sites are disproportionately responsible for cyclist deaths, something the construction industry is failing to take sufficiently seriously, an expert report has suggested.
The study, commissioned by Transport for London (TfL), recommends contractors give drivers "realistic" delivery times to prevent them rushing, plan safe routes to and from sites and treat accidents involving construction trucks as seriously as they do deaths or injuries among building workers.
Overall in the construction industry, the study concludes, "road risk is viewed as less important than general health and safety risk".
The relatively high incidence of serious cycling incidents involving all heavy goods vehicles, particularly in London, has long been a worry for campaigners. In the capital around 50% of all cyclist deaths involve lorries, which comprise only about 5% of traffic, with a high proportion happening when left-turning trucks crush cyclists".
"Peter Walker
Lorries carrying materials to and from building sites are disproportionately responsible for cyclist deaths, something the construction industry is failing to take sufficiently seriously, an expert report has suggested.
The study, commissioned by Transport for London (TfL), recommends contractors give drivers "realistic" delivery times to prevent them rushing, plan safe routes to and from sites and treat accidents involving construction trucks as seriously as they do deaths or injuries among building workers.
Overall in the construction industry, the study concludes, "road risk is viewed as less important than general health and safety risk".
The relatively high incidence of serious cycling incidents involving all heavy goods vehicles, particularly in London, has long been a worry for campaigners. In the capital around 50% of all cyclist deaths involve lorries, which comprise only about 5% of traffic, with a high proportion happening when left-turning trucks crush cyclists".
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You are still ignoring the point that the cyclist staying back will save them. I just can't understand the idea other road users should be burdened by your safety as you might decide to place yourself in more danger than needed. Learn to share the road, 5% of traffic, 0% of cargo, 0 multi passenger trips, lucky to get a look in for funding/planning tbh.
Here is a novel idea. Most accidents happen on A roads as the larger HGVs are too large to take most B roads, most bus routes also follow A roads. Ban cyclists from all A roads unless a separated path has been made, problem solved and we are all inconvenienced taking weird routes. Mopeds and bicycles are banned from motorways for similar safety reasons so extending it doesn't seem too out there.
Or maybe expect cyclists to modify bikes to have moped/motorbike spec head lights and tail lights. Might seem unreasonable to expect anyone riding any old beater to splash out £100 on lights but it is for safety.
We can all have these "great" ideas, the 2 above commonly come out of anti cycling motorist groups and tbh seem more reasonable than bodged truck modifications. I don't think either makes for a healthy balanced transport system.
Why not make all cyclists take out compulsory insurance, nominal fee.
Should a cyclist decide to play Russian roulette with a truck and get squashed to death, this insurance could be used to pay the driver for the massive amount of stress and nightmares he will suffer for the rest of his life.
Like I have said before, most of these truck drivers are professional drivers. They do the best job they can on the small and busy roads we have in our cities and do not set out to kill anyone.
Should a cyclist decide to play Russian roulette with a truck and get squashed to death, this insurance could be used to pay the driver for the massive amount of stress and nightmares he will suffer for the rest of his life.
Like I have said before, most of these truck drivers are professional drivers. They do the best job they can on the small and busy roads we have in our cities and do not set out to kill anyone.
"Turning to the issues of lorries, Inspector Aspinall told the meeting about a day of City of London spot checks on HGVs, carried out on 30 September 2008 as part of the Europe-wide Operation Mermaid, which is intended to step up levels of enforcement of road safety laws in relation to lorries.
On this one day, 12 lorries were stopped randomly by City Police. Five of those lorries were involved in the construction work for the 2012 Olympics.
All of the twelve lorries were breaking the law in at least one way.
The offences range included overweight loads (2 cases), mechanical breaches (5 cases), driver hours breaches (5 cases), mobile phone use while driving (2 cases), driving without insurance (2 cases) and no operator license (1 case)."
Recently, the proportion of Vehicles stopped found to be ILLEGAL was 50%, so that's an *improvement*, yes? providing they weren't tipped off in advance, so why not go on removing these UNSAFE drivers and their UNSAFE vehicles from the highway until we're down to ZERO, eh?
On this one day, 12 lorries were stopped randomly by City Police. Five of those lorries were involved in the construction work for the 2012 Olympics.
All of the twelve lorries were breaking the law in at least one way.
The offences range included overweight loads (2 cases), mechanical breaches (5 cases), driver hours breaches (5 cases), mobile phone use while driving (2 cases), driving without insurance (2 cases) and no operator license (1 case)."
Recently, the proportion of Vehicles stopped found to be ILLEGAL was 50%, so that's an *improvement*, yes? providing they weren't tipped off in advance, so why not go on removing these UNSAFE drivers and their UNSAFE vehicles from the highway until we're down to ZERO, eh?
"Turning to the issues of lorries, Inspector Aspinall told the meeting about a day of City of London spot checks on HGVs, carried out on 30 September 2008 as part of the Europe-wide Operation Mermaid, which is intended to step up levels of enforcement of road safety laws in relation to lorries.
On this one day, 12 lorries were stopped randomly by City Police. Five of those lorries were involved in the construction work for the 2012 Olympics.
All of the twelve lorries were breaking the law in at least one way.
The offences range included overweight loads (2 cases), mechanical breaches (5 cases), driver hours breaches (5 cases), mobile phone use while driving (2 cases), driving without insurance (2 cases) and no operator license (1 case)."
Recently, the proportion of Vehicles stopped found to be ILLEGAL was 50%, so that's an *improvement*, yes? providing they weren't tipped off in advance, so why not go on removing these UNSAFE drivers and their UNSAFE vehicles from the highway until we're down to ZERO, eh?
On this one day, 12 lorries were stopped randomly by City Police. Five of those lorries were involved in the construction work for the 2012 Olympics.
All of the twelve lorries were breaking the law in at least one way.
The offences range included overweight loads (2 cases), mechanical breaches (5 cases), driver hours breaches (5 cases), mobile phone use while driving (2 cases), driving without insurance (2 cases) and no operator license (1 case)."
Recently, the proportion of Vehicles stopped found to be ILLEGAL was 50%, so that's an *improvement*, yes? providing they weren't tipped off in advance, so why not go on removing these UNSAFE drivers and their UNSAFE vehicles from the highway until we're down to ZERO, eh?
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