What price a life?
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Cyclists and tippers go together about as well as ammonia and bleach! Which is why Crossrail is trying to separate them by insisting that a host of cycle-friendly safety features (including sideguards) are fitted to trucks working on the contract. Transport for London and London Mayor Boris Johnson are just as vocal on the subject, calling for tougher restrictions on LGVs. Just last month the mayor announced that in future he'll be insisting that sideguards are fitted to all LGVs entering London. They will be mandatory for all new construction chassis (under whole vehicle type approval rules) from October 2014 anyway.
But, living in the capital, you could be mistaken for believing that they are already mandatory— such is their popularity 'darn sari'. As a nearside alloy guard would cost a couple of hundred quid and add no more than 25kg, it's easy to understand why they are fast becoming standard spec on vehicles that don't venture too far off-road.
But it was a shock to see so little evidence of them at last week's Tip-ex 2013 Show in Harrogate. One bodybuilder told us it's rare to ever fit them north of Birmingham, creating something of a north-south divide.
No matter what you think about cyclists (and I'm certainly not their biggest fan), it doesn't strike me as a huge amount of money to spend to potentially save a life.
And on the subject of Tip-ex, congratulations to all the award winners (p12-13). The gala dinner was a massive success, and I'm pleased to report that we raised almost £6,000 for Help for Heroes.
Will Shiers