Truck drivers will be cycling around Belfast as part of a new scheme aimed at improving safety for all road users.
The Freight Transport Association (FTA) has joined forces with the walking and cycling charity Sustrans to create Safe Urban Driving – a best practice training programme to help prevent collisions with vulnerable road users in an urban environment.
During the one-day course drivers experience the road from a cyclist’s perspective. The course was piloted at the end of June with 10 Belfast City Council drivers and is now being rolled out further.
The Driver CPC accredited course has been developed by the FTA and Sustrans in partnership with Cycle Training UK (CTUK) and is funded by the Public Health Agency (PHA) and Belfast Strategic Partnership.
As part of the course, a leaflet has been produced highlighting safety tips for both drivers and cyclists.
Seamus Leheny, FTA membership relations manager, said: “We represent 14,000 members in the UK who operate over 200,000 commercial goods vehicles, which is around half of the UK fleet.
“Our members take road safety awareness very seriously and are working hard to reduce the fatalities involving lorries on the road. We are pleased to work with Sustrans in developing this training course and are delighted at the uptake to date.”
The Safe Urban Driving programme will be launched on 6 August in Belfast.
One of my friends is a HIAB driver in London and he has just reported to me that during today’s shift at least four cyclists have overtaken him on the inside as he was commencing a left turn. He was wondering if there was anything I could do about it as he’s fairly convinced that eventually he’ll hit and kill one no matter how much care he takes in trying to spot them.
I had to inform him that sadly there is absolutely nothing I can do about the problem because cyclists do not appear to be responsible for their own safety. However if they were to understand that their safety is entirely within their own hands and nobody else’s then maybe I could help.
Duncan MacKillop. No surprise – No accident.
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One would hope that this would be backed up by a course that shows cyclists what the world looks like from the lorry drivers perspective.
Duncan MacKillop. No surprise – No accident.
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