A cyclist was killed and another two injured during the height of the morning rush hour yesterday.
A woman died after being dragged under the wheels of a truck on Bow roundabout. Fifteen minutes later a second victim, who is fighting for his life, was hit by an HGV on Millbank in Westminster. Another woman was taken to hospital with injuries to her leg after colliding with a bus on Vauxhall Bridge an hour earlier.
Paramedics rushed to Bow at 8.45am but the woman was pronounced dead at the scene. She is the 12th cyclist to have been killed on London’s roads this year and the fourth in eight days.
Cyclist Robin Stephenson, 40, an IT manager who was riding to work past the scene, said: “The traffic was backing up from Stratford High Street. I went over the flyover and saw a huge number of emergency services down there. I commute that way every weekday but don’t use the roundabout — I won’t use it. The whole area is just dreadful. The only way that they will fix it is to have full segregation for cyclists.”
An air ambulance was sent to the scene at Millbank at 9am and the victim, in his twenties, was airlifted to King’s College Major Trauma Centre suffering life-threatening abdominal, chest and pelvic injuries.
The woman hurt at Vauxhall Bridge was in her thirties and was taken to St Thomas’ Hospital.
A cyclist was killed on Tuesday after being trapped for 15 minutes beneath a 10-tonne bus.
Witnesses and police frantically tried to free the victim as he lay beneath the front passenger doors following the crash outside East Croydon station. But it wasn’t until fire fighters arrived with a jack to elevate the No 410 that the victim was freed.
The 43-year-old was taken to St George’s Hospital, Tooting, but pronounced dead just over an hour later.