Safety plea after cyclist killed by lorry truck

CYCLISTS have demanded tougher safety training for truck drivers after a man was knocked off his bike and crushed to death underneath a cement lorry.

The crash happened at Harold’s Cross bridge in heavy mid-morning traffic yesterday.

Dr Mike McKillen, spokesman for national cycling organisation cyclist.ie, branded it a scandal that drivers are not taught how to safely interact with cyclists.

“This is a scandal,” said Dr McKillen. “What we would want specifically for HGV drivers in their testing system is computer simulation where they have to interact with cyclists in a virtual way as part of the test.

“We would ideally like to see it for all (drivers)... but you have to target bus drivers, coach drivers and HGV drivers.”

A witness to the crash, Sean Prunty, who operates an property company on Harold’s Cross Road, said he heard a loud metal crash.

“I heard the noise, it was like a metal noise and sounded as if there was something falling off the back of the truck.

“I saw a truck and then a I saw a bicycle on the road — the bicycle was mangled.

“But it was only when I stood up and walked over towards the front door that I saw the body on the road then.”

Last year 279 people were killed on the country’s roads, including 14 cyclists.

In a separate incident, a woman pedestrian is battling for her life after she was struck by a bus on Dublin’s College Green shortly before 7pm on Tuesday evening.

“The woman was unresponsive as she was taken to the hospital,” a Dublin Fire Brigade spokesperson said yesterday.

The accident occurred shortly after Europe-wide road safety rules for professional bus drivers came into effect, requiring drivers to obtain new licences and upgrade their training by 2013.

Full or part-time drivers holding a valid bus licence on September 9 last year are automatically entitled to the new Driver Certificate of Professional Competence and not immediately required to obtain the new cards issued by the Road Safety Authority.

However, these drivers will be required to attend a 35-hour driver training programme within the next five years.

Any driver applying for a new bus licence has to pass the practical and theory test on top of the standard bus driving test.