I wanted this blog to be a bit light-hearted and extolling the joy of cycling bla bla. But a few days after my post moaning about the lack of interest on behalf of Wandsworth Council about the whole question of HGVs and cyclists, someone else has been killed. This takes the total number of cyclists killed this year in London to 10, 9 of which involved HGVs. Let’s not brush over this, 90% OF CYCLISTS KILLED IN LONDON IN 2008 INVOLVED HGVs
Death is awful no matter who it happens to, but when it involves a child it is even more terrible. Tragically, this time it was a child who was killed. I understand his name was Syed Mohammed Sajjad Bilgrami aged 16. According to the news report:
“A teenage cyclist was knocked down and killed by a lorry at a busy south London junction labelled a “deathtrap”.
The 16-year-old boy was hit by the articulated lorry in Tooting High Street as they pulled away from traffic lights at the crossroads. Paramedics and police rushed to the junction with Blackshaw Road, where the Streatham Vale boy lay dying. He was treated at the scene and taken to nearby St George’s Hospital. Doctors worked for a number of hours to save the teenager but he later died of his injuries”.
When I think about the letter I got from Wandsworth Council telling me it would all be OK now because they had put some posters up in libraries (OK I am over-simplifying what they said, but you get the point), it makes me really angry.
1. Why is this not all over the news?
2. Why are people not totally outraged that innocent people minding their own business are being killed in the capital so needlessly?
3. Why is Wandsworth Council “not convinced of the logic” in banning HGVs from roads during busy times when people are cycling to and from work or school?
4. Is it just me, or is this absolutely and totally fucking wrong?
I just can’t imagine how terrible this must be for Syed’s family and my heart goes out to them. Something has to be done and has to be done now.
Read the Evening Stanadard news article here.
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i m the grieving father of dead sajjad bilgrami. i m touched to read your comments.i also ask the same question to goverement that why dont they ban lorrys and hgvs in peak hours. if they expect the increase in cycling on london roads. My son would have been alive if this law was implented.
thank you for condolances
asif bilgrami
[...] wrote about the heart-breaking incident when a child, Sajjad Bilgrami, was killed by an HGV at the end of last year. The boy’s father actually commented on my entry. At the time I had [...]