The London Assembly has propped up a cyclist campaign by calling on the Mayor of London to urge all trucks are fitted with safety mirrors not just those on the roads since 2000. On the back of statistics from the London Cycling Campaign (LCC), which suggests nine cyclists have died in London through collisions with lorries in 2008, the London Assembly has called for every HGV to be fitted with a safety mirror from next year.
Under EU legislation, all lorries built since 2000 will have to be equipped with EU-standard safety mirrors from 31 March 2009, but the London Assembly is campaigning for this to be extended to HGVs built before 2000. Joanne McCartney, the assembly member who proposed the move on 15 October, claims: "These mirrors are a cheap and effective solution. They cost approximately the same as a tank of diesel a price worth paying. We want the London Mayor to high rise this issue."
The LCC estimates there are 100,000 UK lorries registered before 2000. LCC campaigns and development manager Tom Bogdanowicz argues: "We think drivers should all have the same information. The design of lorries is not necessarily for urban areas hence why the mirrors are needed."
The campaign urges the Department for Transport (DfT) to implement an extended legislation as quickly as possible. McCartney concludes: "The DfT estimates that a year's delay in putting these measures in place could cost 18 lives in the UK."