Saturday 12 February 2011

Hackney: no ‘safety in numbers’


























Hackney has more cyclists than any other borough in the capital, with residents making four times as many trips by bike than the average Londoner.

Many will remain safe on the roads. But the latest figures from Hackney Council show there were 197 collisions involving cyclists in Hackney in 2009 and 196 in 2008.

Family and friends of Hackney charity worker Shivon Watson were left devastated when she died after a collision with a tipper truck on Victoria Park roundabout last March.

Ms Watson, 28, who was also a fashion designer and a singer, was trapped between the lorry and railings as they both turned left.

Then in August last year, Arina Romanova, originally from Latvia, was knocked down in an accident with a black taxi in Graham Road, Dalston, at the junction with Navarino Road.She was on her way to work in Liverpool Street on a friend’s blue fold-up bike.

Ms Romanov, 24, of Amhurst Road, died at the Royal London Hospital two weeks later.

And this week came the sad news
that 28-year-old Daniel Cox, the cyclist seriously injured in a collision with a lorry at Dalston Junction last Wednesday evening, (Feb 2) had died on Friday.