Doing our part for safer cycling

They say it’s not what you know but who you know – and that was certainly the case for Islington Police this Autumn! When running a cycling safety event in Finsbury Square, they needed a large HGV to help them demonstratethe driver’s ‘blind spots’ which often cause cycling accidents – so PC James Burgess, of Islington borough’s Neighbourhood Support Team turned to his wife Claire for assistance. Claire happens to be Performance Manager for Clancy Plant Hire, and has access to more HGVs than most people! One of which we were more than happy to donate for the day, along with driver Kevin Hewitt and National Transport Manager, John Blakeley.

During the one day event, which was designed to help cyclists be safer on the road, our HGV was used to demonstrate to people that they need to stay out of the driver’s ‘blind spot’ in order to stay safe. Passing cyclists were invited to sit in the driver’s cab and to see for themselves how hard it is to see a passing bicycle, as other volunteer cyclists ably demonstrated. Commenting on the success of the day, PC Burgess said: “The day’s activity was part of Operation Red Kite, a borough wide operation which was aimed at reducing crime by working with our partners on a wide range of initiatives. Our part of this was to educate cyclists about the dangers of riding on London’s roads . . . over 100 cyclists took the opportunity to have the safety demonstration in the HGV. Each cyclist that took part said they would definitely adjust the way they ride to take into account the various blind spots on the vehicle. I hope our actions today will help to prevent serious accidents in the future, and my thanks go to everyone at Clancy Plant Hire who helped us to achieve this.”