Cyclist hit on Harold's Cross Road, Dublin

agent_smith

Gardaí were conducting interviews/witness statements this morning at harolds cross bridge ? (im guessing thats what was going on )

CheGuedara

Húrin wrote: »

I have an old mountain bike and some white spray paint. I would be willing to donate said bike as a ghost bike at the accident spot.

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

Sounds like an idea then. If you need any help or anything let me know!

dubmess wrote: »

.....I was discussing with other messnengers about the idea of placing a ghost bike at the junction. ..... I live quite close to this shop so would be quite happy to have a chat to him about it tomorrow and get the ghost bike up and running over the weekend Graham

Eoin D wrote: »

If a ghost bike were to be put there it would be good if maybe RIP Mr/Mrs X was stenciled somewhere and then say ghostbike.ie on the downtube or somewhere else?

On Ghostbike.ie there could be statistics, locations of accident blackspots, explanation of the ghostbike etc.

Just a thought to raise awareness

There seems to be good support for this for both a memorial for the cyclist and as an awareness raising move. It looks as if there's a bike and paint available (graciously offered by Húrin) and if contact could be made with the shop to OK it with them it sounds like it's a runner. I'm not sure what more I can do to help things along but I'll do my bit if I can

mmclo

Maybe this incident just brings the ghost bike idea into focus, it may not have to be at this site but if the shop agrees maybe, other option might be a more sybolic (and bigger) one perhas on the keys - maybe even a type of art piece but emodying the same message, Dublin City Council may assist as some cllrs are cycling enthusiasts, the keys are where most accidents happen

penfold83

BeerNut wrote: »

Apparently there's a large Gardaí presence at the junction now, seeking witness statements, I hope.

I cycled past about half an hour ago and there was about 15 Gardaí standing outside the AM/PM shop with clipboards who all seemed to be receiving instructions from another Gard. I presume it's witness statements they're after...

RedPlanet

I go through this intersection on my commute 2x everyday.
It's an absolute nightmare.
Drivers are particularly aggressive as some of them are trying to turn right, then others behind them are trying to get around.
It's worth pointing out, that if the cement truck was heading South going over the bridge; often drivers create 2 lanes on the bridge here, then they try to merge into one lane right at that AMPM shop.
If that's the case, then the driver may have been looking at merging, rather than what was directly infront of him.

stephenjk

RIP - Very sad. Ride safely folks.

Itsfixed

RedPlanet wrote: »

I go through this intersection on my commute 2x everyday.
It's an absolute nightmare.
Drivers are particularly aggressive as some of them are trying to turn right, then others behind them are trying to get around.
It's worth pointing out, that if the cement truck was heading South going over the bridge; often drivers create 2 lanes on the bridge here, then they try to merge into one lane right at that AMPM shop.
If that's the case, then the driver may have been looking at merging, rather than what was directly infront of him.

That actually sounds quite feasible. Did I read that the driver wasn't at fault?

RedPlanet

What I also find a bit odd, is this:
Presuming the cyclist was heading EAST along the canal, then turned LEFT (south) onto Harold's Cross road, whilst going thru a red light.

That is actually a fairly reasonable thing to do, because that particular corner is rather wide there.
The AMPM shop is probably a good 25m south of that corner, so the cyclist would have been well established as part of the south-heading traffic at that point.

davenewt

After reading this thread I couldn't leave without adding a small note. My thoughts are with the cyclist's family & friends and all involved/caught up in such a tragic accident.

I hope all road users will be reminded in whatever way - be it a ghost bike or any kind of record/memorial of the event, reading the news, improvements to signage/junctions or whatever can be done to make a positive change to people's attitudes on our roads - to take extra care and just be safe.

Peace.

fascination

I'm still trying to understand what happenened, everyone involved was terribly unlucky.
Good point on the merging. I'm pretty sure there are two demarcated lanes at the top of the bridge but the left one should be marked as left turn only. There's always a lot of horn-blowing when cars are trying to merge there. I really can't think of another junction like it in Dublin. It's totally blind either direction, I have to psyche myself up for it always on the approach, be it by bike or car. As for turning right onto the the canal coming from Harold's X, it's very stressful. Grand when you have the filter but always feel like I'm taking a chance when turning without it. I think the whole junction should be revised.
Anyway my thoughts are with the cyclist's family and friends. I hope we call take something from this.
Keep safe everyone!

kmick

First off let me make two points then I am going to say something which may be very contentious.
1) RIP this poor guy - it has been said before but its every cyclist worst nightmare. Condolences to the family
2) Right turn heading southbound is irrelevant in this scenario but I think any turn on that bridge needs to be banned - its too blind and traffic crossing the bridge is moving too fast.

I have been cycling in Dublin since I came here many years back. I have seen some very poor behavior from cyclists in that time. This morning a guy in GAA gear shorts and top sporting the Kerry colours undertook a van turning left into Portobello college going North over Portobello bridge. He was lucky the guy in the Van (who had been indicating for ages) saw him and slammed on the brakes. If he had not the guy would have been under a Van.

Now on to my point which may get me labeled a racist. I have been noticing and commenting to people for ages that Chinese people on bicycles are a danger to themselves. Now let me also say that Irish people and all the other nationality users have a growing percentage of people that are a danger to themselves. But the behaviors of the Chinese cyclists are awful. They are totally unobservant in their environment.

I dont want to speak ill of the dead and I dont know the circumstances of this death but lately more and more I have wanted to say to people of all races "dont do that its very dangerous" but I feel unable to as its likely ill get a slap or told to **** off.

I'm putting my neck out here so feel free to chop it off. Understand however I am not a racist so dont start out form that point if you are going to criticize my post.

i57dwun4yb1pt8

Sickening , poor chap - RIP mate .

I go through it everyday , and its LETHAL .

that bridge is the one place on earth you should NEVER break the lights , whether you are on a bike , legs or car .
always wait for the green , then slowly count to 3 to be sure at harolds x .

particularly that spot he turned at , stuff comes flying south over the bridge , through the reds and you cant see them due to the bridge hump .

alot of morons are actually nearly airborne to get over the bridge in the early red.


also the traffic going / filtering right ( thier perspec) on the opposite side
have to be watched very carefully cos if you are going straight on to crumlin, on a bike they do not pay attention to you.


i have to say , that trucker must have been going fast and been very close to the cycle lane if that guy was turning left to actually hit him.
no truck mirror is going to help there.

trucks should be mandated to slow speeds in a city area by law.

god it could have been anyone on a bike , that chap was just unlucky enough not to know the crack at that bridge .

Chips Lovell

90 per cent of the Chinese people I see on bikes don't know the rules the road. 90 per cent of the Irish people I see don't either. I don't think nationality is an issue.

markpb

I don't know the southside at all (limit my cycling to Santry - SSG), so could anyone give me a link to Google maps so I could see the junction?

Howitzer

Hi All,

I have put a new thread in place to deal with 'Ghost Bike Scheme'. Please continue any discussion in relation to the scheme here

Thanks

jdscrubs

Just read on the paper today that there have been 22 cyclists killed in Dublin over the past seven years, 16 of whom were struck by HGV's, 4 were knocked down by cars and one by a bus. Shocking statistics that

BaBiT

RIP, thoughts and prayers are with the mans family and friends.

Just to add my tuppence worth on the ghostbike idea, I know when I'm driving and I see a memorial by the side of the road it does register in the mind that somebody died on this anonymous piece of road doing exactly what I'm doing...I think the ghostbike would register with me on both my cycling and driving sides of my brain...Great idea...I think a name, date and time of death on the top tube could be very effective to really hit home that this was just an ordinary guy doing what thousands of us do every day, killed by another ordinary guy doing what hundreds of thousands of us do everyday....There but for the.........

-Blanco-

RIP - terrible to hear. Keep safe everyone.

seamus

DaDumTish wrote: »

i have to say , that trucker must have been going fast and been very close to the cycle lane if that guy was turning left to actually hit him.
no truck mirror is going to help there.

I doubt speed was a factor at all, though the "merging" theory might have legs.
Trucks are big and heavy. Even if the truck was moving at 5mph, a bike and a human won't present any resistance.

BeerNut

markpb wrote: »

I don't know the southside at all (limit my cycling to Santry - SSG), so could anyone give me a link to Google maps so I could see the junction?

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=53.329419,-6.275704&spn=0.004652,0.009549&z=17

buffalo

markpb wrote: »

I don't know the southside at all (limit my cycling to Santry - SSG), so could anyone give me a link to Google maps so I could see the junction?

Where green meets orange at http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=53.329367,-6.275114&spn=0.002883,0.009656&z=17

edit: beaten to it!

So has anyone heard 100% whether the truck was coming from over the bridge or turning left off the canal? Yesterday the former was the dominant theory, but the newspapers are reporting the latter today.

Knifey_Spooney

buffalo wrote: »

Where green meets orange at http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=53.329367,-6.275114&spn=0.002883,0.009656&z=17

Pity there's no street view, the air photos don't do the chaos there any justice.

Serafijn

Poor guy, my condolences to his family. I live literally 2 mins from where it happened, but I can believe it because the junction is a nightmare.

For the guys who cycle that way turning left into Harolds Cross Road from the canal, there is a shortcut you can take to cut out that corner. Have a look here. If only this guy had known about it...

FrankGrimes

Horrible thing to hear about, condolences to all that knew the deceased.

A memorial does sound like a good idea as it does register with motorists.

The 22 cyclists killed in 4 years isn't as high as I thought it might have been but the fact 16 were killed by HGVs is very concerning. I get pretty irate whenever I see a HGV in the city centre flouting the no-HGV law - is there a number to call to report them (appreciate the majority of the 16 were killed before that law came into effect)?

Bunnyhopper

This is the article, referred to a couple of times already, with the statistics on fatalities:

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/crackdown-on-trucks-urged-as-cyclist-crushed-by-cement-mixer-1602031.html

@Serafijn Ta for the shortcut - I don't take that route very often but I'll file that one away for future reference.

BeerNut

FrankGrimes wrote: »

I get pretty irate whenever I see a HGV in the city centre flouting the no-HGV law

They probably have permits. The Diageo ones do AFAIK.

floydsbarber

Horrible accident. Condolenses to his family and friends.

charlietangodel wrote: »

The GhostBike method is another stark method of highlighting cycle safety.

All we need is an old bike, devoid of its cables, chain and pedals and then give it a quick dash of white paint.
The only real expense is a sturdy U lock so that the bike can't be gotten rid of easily. The idea is that it stays there!

I'm sure it would be possiblle to get all these things welded to the frame of the bike.
I dont know the junction well, but maybe the bike itself could also be welded to something.

Hopefully that would deter the scumbags

DBCyc

What a terrible accident. My condolences to the family and friends of this man. My thoughts are also with the truck driver.

BeerNut wrote: »

They probably have permits. The Diageo ones do AFAIK.

I am pretty sure the HGV ban in the city centre is for vehicles with 5 or more axles i.e. the big Tesco trucks, car transporters etc. unless they have a permit for deliveries. The likes of cement trucks, skip trucks etc. can still travel through the city centre at any time as they have less than 5 axles.

It's not surprising that the stats show the majority of cyclist fatalities involve HGVs. Cyclists should always try to keep away from such vehicles but I think there is an onus on the HGV drivers to really slow down and drive carefully in town/city centres. They can do so much damage.

sgross75

Possibly what we should do on here is to name and shame ie take down the reg# and company name and post the details on here - maybe there is someone of importance that reads these threads...

BeerNut

DBCyc wrote: »

I am pretty sure the HGV ban in the city centre is for vehicles with 5 or more axles i.e. the big Tesco trucks, car transporters etc. unless they have a permit for deliveries. The likes of cement trucks, skip trucks etc. can still travel through the city centre at any time as they have less than 5 axles.

Yes. The Diageo-contracted tankers that still run from James's Gate to the docks during the day are definitely more than 5 axle. 42% of the total permits issued by the corpo during the period of the last review were to Diageo. The sooner they shift most of their production out to Leixlip the better.

I am aware that FrankGrimes's post isn't directly related to this accident, but big trucks in the city centre are part of the wider problem.