Bike under Lorry on Stokes Croft

One of our many reporters was on Stokes Croft to catch the aftermath of this weeks's second bike/lorry incident, this one with a skip lorry turning left over a bike (which may have been going straight on).

The reporter "S" says:

I was heading out on stokes croft, had turned right and was in picton street when the incident happened, so didnt see it. I did see that the vehicle in the front of the left turn lane was the orange truck involved. I think there may have been a bike in the ASL, but my memory is vague as I do that route too often. If I am correct, that bike was somebody else anyway.

The lorry was turning left from cheltenham road and the arches, but as it wasn't moving I could catch the green light first and turn into ashley road, then left into picton street, where I was busy feeling smug that I had cleared the junction so easily today. Suddenly there is really load screaming, that doesn't stop. Everyone nearby starts rushing up, saying whats happened?, looking around.

There's a woman on the floor screaming, not much blood. A PCSO runs up and starts to look after her, and calls for support. The nearby shop brings out a blanket and everyone comfort the cyclist until the paramedics and then the ambulance turn up. I'm not giving you any photos of her -the lorry driver is the man in orange to the left of the photo.

The ambulances came fast

(ed: 6-minutes from the first photo to the one with two ambulances)

The ambulance took her off, there was some suspicion of a broken leg/ankle. The bike is toast. By comparison, the cyclist seemed fairly uninjured

There we have it then, three bike/lorry collisions in a week -one on Park Row, one outside the Evening Post, this one. We all hope that everyone involved recovers rapidly.

It's too early to assign blame here; the reality is that in any bike/lorry collision, its the person on the bike who loses. What is obvious, when you look back at the route they were using is that the bike lane leads people on bikes into exactly the wrong place -inside vehicles on the left turn lane. We've been here before, praising vehicles for blocking it out of safety concerns, and here you have evidence that it really is something to avoid. This is a pretty hazardous junction all round, its where the same reporter had their A&M Motor Road Rage incident, heading the other way.