A woman in her 30s was killed in a collision with a truck driver while cycling in north Dublin city centre this morning at around 10.55am.
The collision happened at the junction of Seville Place, Guild Street and Sheriff Street, in the north Docklands.
Brendan English of the Garda press office said: “The cyclist, a female in her early 30s was pronounced dead at the scene.”
He said that her “body remains at the scene and the driver of the truck has been brought to Beaumont Hospital as a precaution.”
“Diversions are in place and Gardaí are appeal for witnesses to contact Store Street Garda Station on 6668000, The Garda Confidential Line 1800 666 111 or any Garda Station.”
Bike paths killing again?
From the photos on the Irish Times article, looks like a left turn collision. RIP, poor woman.
The poor woman and her family. Don’t have any idea what happened and not speculating on fault.
That said, this used to be my daily commute; That’s a really busy and tricky junction. Busy road meets another at a bend. Many cars break the no-left-turn rule coming from Sheriff St. onto Guild street. And rampant red light breaking due to short green for Sheriff St. Also some drivers swing left suddenly when they see heavy traffic southbound on Guild St. after the bend.
Add to that the fact that the lovely cycle track from the Liffey comes to a sudden end on the wrong side of the road for the main flow of bikes continuing onto Seville Pl. Bikes can dismount and use the pedestrian lights to cross or try to join the flow of traffic crossing from Sheriff St.
Let’s hope the accident is investigated properly and some of the more obvious steps to improving safety at the junction can be expedited.
Just saw the Irish Times photo. Had forgotten about those stupid, stupid metal barriers that give cyclists little chance of escape and were supposed to be phased out years ago :-(
Well done European Commission for not legislating for safer truck design and DCC for allowing the carnage to continue by allowing them into inner city.
I’ll stop the sarcasm, I am actually enraged by this. It has happened before and will continue to happen until the people responsible actually take their responsibility. In the meantime, why can’t the owners of these trucks pay for a second person on board to cut a bit on the kills?
By the way, when you can predict something, can you really call it an accident?
Manolo, you are correct! These impacts are entirely predictable so why is there a wholly inadequate policy response to this maiming and killing of cyclists.
We need to hear it from the road authority #DubCityCouncil, Minister Ross, AGS and HSE (these are work vehicles with a fatal design flaw in the driver’s view from the cab).
Your policy response is silence. That’s not good enough.
Poor woman. Crushed against the barrier it would appear. Another needless death due to inadequate poorly implemented cycling facilities. While elsewhere the NTA are pulling funding on 3 greenways that would help people to avoid having to put their lives at risk just getting to work or school.
I travel this way every day and the same thing ahs nearly happened me twice in the last couple of years
My sympathies to this woman’s family, friends and colleagues.
Such tragedies have come with terrible frequency in recent weeks. That the response of those who ought to be taking responsibility for cyclists’ safety has ranged from silence to massive withdrawals of funding for cycling infrastructure just adds to my anger and frustration.
Paul: “Many cars break the no-left-turn rule coming from Sheriff St. onto Guild street.”
If you follow that route on Google Street View, you’ll see a silver SUV doing exactly that.
My heart goes out to this poor girls family, a horrible reminder of how dangerous it is cycling in and around the IFSC
Manolo, I don’t really agree with you. In theory, having a lookout is a good idea, but in practice, would it really work? I do think if a driver says to a colleague “come with me John, by law I need someone else in the cab as a lookout now,” they will just end up having a chat which will result in them paying less attention to those around them. They had a designated lookout on the titanic and it still hit an iceberg. The problem is the streets and cycle lanes (both the quality and the layout) and the laws around when and where these trucks can drive. Where there is a cycle lane there shouldn’t be trucks, and where there are trucks there shouldn’t be cyclists. Also during the busy commuting times, trucks should not be allowed and alternative arrangements should be made.
I saw a post from a guy the other day complaining about having to cycle through walls of buses on Westmorland street and the fact that there is no cycle path or lane, and as a cyclist myself I thought “dude, just take another route!”
I’m not saying that this poor woman who died today was at fault, or that she was somewhere she shouldn’t have been. It’s a terrible accident and my heart goes out to her and her family.
What I’m saying is, we need to get rid of this sense of entitlement amongst cyclists. Yes, we need to be kept safer by changing the law and upgrading the infrastructure, but we also need to go out of our way to keep ourselves safe: taking safer routes even if they are longer, helmets, lights, ALWAYS giving traffic the right of way if there is any doubt if they saw you or not, etc. We need to keep ourselves safe too. Dublin is not a cycling city yet. If you are a cyclist here, as I am, you need to keep that in mind.
I want to share with you some important piece of background about the enforcement of the City’s HGV permit system.
Some months ago I asked Tommy Broughan TD (Indep, Dublin Bay North) to pose a PQ to the Minister for Justice seeking data for the number of HGVs stopped by An Garda and checked for compliance with the HGV permit system. The answer was none for the years 2014-16.
With the resurgence in widespread building construction right across the city wouldn’t you think that a policy intervention to protect cyclists, at the very least, would involve permit status compliance checking?
Not so, it would seem. Unless HGV drivers know that they are going to be stopped regularly they will bast their way across the city.
Another issue is the payment-by-load-delivered which serves to encourage speeding.
PQs #68/69 on 24 May 2016.
As I keep stating, cyclists just don’t count!
Does anyone know the type of vehicle involved in this? The section of road it was turning onto has a 7.5ton weight limit.