https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c338774n2ypo
A cyclist who died in a collision with a lorry in Belfast had been in the "blind spot" of the driver, a coroner has found.
Gary McMahon, 58, had been on his way to work in November 2024 when he died on one of the busiest roads near the city centre, Clifton Street, close to Carlisle Circus in north Belfast.
The inquest heard that Mr McMahon, who worked at the supermarket Asda and also the BBC, had not realised a lorry was turning and had cycled through a red light at a crossing.
The coroner Anne-Louise Toal said he appeared to have "misinterpreted" the lorry's intentions.
As for the driver, the coroner said "she was making the appropriate number of checks" during the turn and the vehicle had indicated in advance but the cyclist had been in a "blind spot".
The inquest heard that the vehicle had been fitted with an additional safety feature to provide alerts about people or objects nearby, but this had not been working properly on the day.
The inquest was told that the lorry driver had been on a hands-free telephone call at the time of the collision but there was no evidence that this had distracted her and she was driving slowly at 8mph.
An eyewitness said the driver "did everything right".
Mr McMahon, from west Belfast, died at the scene due to chest and stomach injuries.
Death 'underscores blind spot dangers' A yellow, blue and white Skoda police car parked on a city street with an officer in a green uniform standing next to it. Another police officer is standing behind the car in a yellow hi-vis police jacket, he is standing in front of police tape which is across the road. Image source,Pacemaker Image caption, The Northern Ireland Ambulance Service received a report at 07:53 GMT
The inquest heard he was deeply loved by his family, and was a devoted owner of two dogs and was a fanatical Manchester United supporter.
The coroner said his death underscored the dangers posed by blind spots in driving.
She said that cyclists and pedestrians should be aware of how vulnerable they can be sometimes.
She pointed to cyclists wearing helmets, reflective clothing and using lights to increase visibility.
Drivers too need to be acutely aware of cyclists and pedestrians, she said, and ensure any safety systems are functioning properly.
A so-called ghost bike has been left at the scene of the collision on Clifton Street.
There are three such bikes in Belfast, marking where cyclists have died in recent years.
The so-called ghost bike was created by cyclist John Wright, who attended the inquest.
Afterwards he said he hoped it would be the last death of a cyclist in Belfast.
"The whole incident should be a learning experience for everyone including the Department for Infrastructure," he said.
"It (cycling) is the most efficient form of transport. It should be a critical part of our roads culture and our roads planning that cyclists should have some form of priority on the roads."
Also at the inquest was Anne Madden from the Walk Wheel Cycle Trust, previously known as Sustrans.
She sent her sympathy to family of Mr McMahon and called for urgent action to be taken at Clifton Street.
"It's not safe for people walking or cycling," she said.
The Department for Infrastructure has been contacted for comment.
There’s a video of the blind spots for a lorry and I was shocked how bad it was.
blind spot!
Cars have become just as bad. The A pillar now is so thick that if you approach a small roundabout and car is coming from the left to right it can sync up so it’s behind the A Pillar and blocked from view. You won’t see till the last minute. Happened to me a few times. Can see the same happening with a pedestrian or cyclist.
Yeah it can happen with in cars too, especially with passengers. Just recently I was driving with the wife making a right turn just out of a roundabout and my wife who was in the passenger seat yelled to watch out for the cyclist. I stopped right away and he just popped out from behind my wife's head. The angle of the road, our relative speeds, and how my wife was sitting made it so I couldn't see the cyclist at all as I approached the junction. The cyclist was giving off shaking his head looking super pissed and I was quite upset with the whole situation too. Lucky my wife was paying attention and not looking at her phone or it might have ended really badly.
That looks really fishy.
I'm not saying there isn't a blind spot but you can clearly see the area that they are in on the upper mirror.
Why not just take that mirror off and then not fake the video?
There’s actually other videos of the same thing.
Surely this is the only information that's relevant regardless of the (appropriate) precautions taken by the lorry driver
I'm usually very critical of the DfI but I'm not sure what they're supposed to learn from this. Maybe that cyclists should have to take a mandatory test to use their vehicle on the public highway so they are better educated about the dangers of running red lights or HGV blind spots?
Yeah why its not mentioned after on the outcome is baffling
It’s an inquest to establish all the relevant facts. The BBC haven’t posted verbatim what was in it either, just snippets.
There was broken safety equipment on the lorry that could've prevented this, that's probably what they're getting at the DFI for
Not to mention there is absolutely no reason for lorries to have blind spots. Lorries are just allowed to have massive blind spots despite the fact that mirrors and cameras exist.
Maybe there's a lesson for DfI to work towards an appropriate infrastructure where cyclists need to spend less time on the designed-for-vehicles roads generally, especially in urban areas.
It's a tragic incident... all round. I really feel for the driver who'll have this on their mind regardless of having done everything right. I'm not arguing the cyclist is blameless, but there's a lot going on that could have caused distraction and missing the light at the crossing.
and the mentioned "blindspot" - my guess is they are contributory factors and the death could have been prevented despite the cyclist breaking a red light (at a crossing?)
Edit: the below user replied then blocked me. A real class act along with the comment content.
If I cross a red light in the car it doesn't matter if the lorry's blind spot detection is working, it is doing 100mph, or the driver has jumped out and let it freewheel across the junction. I shouldn't have crossed through the red light. Case closed.
In the event of a crossing light... you're taught the "green cross code" when you're about 6 years old. If you're walking out into traffic then Idk what to tell you. Wake up, perhaps?
running a red light, depending on the incident, will put most of the blame on the person that went through it.
However a green light only means go if the road ahead is clear, so it doesn’t absolve the person who has green of the responsibility to look first.
If an accident could have been avoided by either person being more aware (e.g. on a wide open junction with clear sight lines) then the outcome of a judgement may not be what most people would assume it to be.
Jesus, someone lost their life. It sounds like there was loads of factors at play that all combined to result in a tragic accident.
There is absolutely no need for the vitriol.
I think there is a little bit of a difference between jumping a red traffic light verses jumping a red pedestrian light, which is what happened here. Maybe it is just me but I've absolutely gone when I thought a crossing was clear but the light was red for the crossing, verses would never think of jumping a red traffic light.
I have to say though, I'm not sure I would do it if a lorry was coming my way, whether it was indicating towards me or not.
Edit: nice edit, haha, would have made more sense to keep your comment and just reply to me saying you were confused/didn't read the article properly about it being a traffic light verses pedestrian crossing. Would be nice to be just as perfect as you and have never crossed a pedestrian crossing when we thought it was clear!
Ah well, we can't all be perfect.
Can't say I've ever walked out in front of a fucking lorry but here we are.
Tell me this - would you agree that lorries wnd other vehicles with large blind spots should have functioning blind spot detection to prevent danger to other road users? Or do you think all responsibility should fall to other road users to avoid blind spots? Just to get a feeling of where you’re at
That's great for you, nor have I, but I also am not stupid enough to be so callous and believe it could never possibly happen to me, if for eg, I crossed the road believing it wasn't turning my way, missing an indicator or it simply not indicating. But again, not as perfect as yourself.
I don't have you blocked mate
Not any more you don’t 👍
How would I know to come back and tell you that if I did? Very weird angle to take lad but no matter👍
You can see people's comments when you block them, so that is how.
Good to know
You’re the one trying to pretend you didn’t block me. Let me give you the benefit of the doubt that Reddit had a bizarre outage that only prevented me from seeing your comments and replying to comments downstream of specifically your comments rather than you having blocked me.
I'm really not interested in your self-indulgence any more. You are not important or antagonistic enough for me to bother blocking, lol.
You know yourself if you blocked me or not.
If DFI was in any way competent, every death of a cyclist on the road would prompt them to finally build safe cycling infrastructure. These sort of accidents are so much less likely to happen if you have proper cycle lanes completely segregated from other traffic. DFI sadly seems to be ideologically opposed to this particular brand of infrastructure
Maybe that there should be proper cycling infrastructures segregated from the roads that motor vehicles use.
Before the inevitable bunfight between drivers and cyclists plays out in the comments- another sobering reminder to the DoI that paint is not infrastructure.
Poor city planning, lazy development and under investment means that ALL road users suffer.
Don't think planning can be used in this case as he illegally ran a red light.
Amazingly Belfast Live has better information than the BBC. So he was on the pavement, crossing the Westlink on slip without a green-man and seems to have assumed the lorry was going straight. A little less egregious than "illegally running a red light" across the front of a lorry.
It’s almost an entirely different story with that detail
The BBC omission is pretty poor.
This comment needs pinned to the top of this thread. BBC article omits the most important detail.
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Or just someone who was on the pavement on a bicycle because Clifton street is miserable to cycle on. They’re also dead, maybe a little bit of charitable empathy wouldn’t go amiss?
Would be pretty stupid to get on the pavement to go through a red pedestrian light when the traffic light on road would have been green hence the lorry going? Don't think you thought this through at all, pretty clear he was on the pavement as that road is pretty scary as a cyclist.
If you have properly protected and segregated infrastructure then vulnerable users don't mix with heavy traffic, making this sort of thing impossible through design.
It’s the bigger picture. Belfast is a nightmare to drive through with congestion but is even worse to cycle through. Active transport is encouraged, but the powers that be seem to think that painting a line down the side of a busy road and allowing cars to park over it counts as infrastructure.
Tbh I’m surprised there’s not more cyclist deaths on the road given that for the majority of a commute through town a cyclist is forced to share lanes with cars who have no idea they are there (and seem to actively hate them) and weave in and out of parked vehicles when trying to use the cycling “infrastructure” that is there
What has the DfI done wrong here? How much planning/paint/investment is required before the traffic light becomes visible?
Simply that if Belfast had proper active travel infrastructure like other European cities tragedies like this are less likely to happen (and before the “but he still…” I said LESS likely)
At a crossing makes me wonder is it a case of him being on the pavement and crossing with a red man as opposed to jumping a red light on the road.
edit: from belfast live
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Based on what information?
This is illogical, the light on the road was green, hence the lorry going, the pedestrian light was red. Why are you assuming things that make zero sense.
There are many different ways to design roads and junctions that keep cyclists separate from cars. Obviously this costs money but there has been essentially no desire from dfi to implement any of them even when active travel budget is available
Cycle lanes at junctions still use traffic lights.
Traffic lights are one of the most fundamental aspects of using public roads. My 6 year old niece understands how they work and what to do at a red light ffs. If you don't know what a red light means, whether it's a traffic light or a crossing, you shouldn't be on the road. Whether in a HGV, on a bike or as a pedestrian.
This is a load of rubbish. While I feel bad for the cyclist and his family, this is why you don't jump the fucking lights or run on a red man.
Yea... so Who pays? Where does the cash come from?
That's literally the question no one wants to deal with.
We can say this should be like this, or that should be like that, or we should change this, or we should make better that...
It takes money.
So where is the money to do this?
What do you reckon costs more to build and maintain - a surface cars and lorries drive on or a surface cyclists ride on?
How much does pollution cost the NHS in reality conditions? How much does it cost in conditions worsened by obesity?
How much does traffic and congestion cost? Wasted time in queues, people not being able to get places?
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Dfi has a legal target to spend 10% of its budget on active travel. They currently use this to paint lines on roads and resurface existing cycle lanes
The whole section along the embankment where the PEC is was recently resurfaced and while admittedly it's nice there was also nothing wrong with the old one. Smelled a bit of we've no idea what else to do with this budget so just whack this on.
Edit* I couldn't find the article I was thinking of but this one is pointing out that the majority of the funds for active travel are actually being spend on road resurfacing.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1km83p1n03o
Taxes. Same as all public works and goods.
For a start bring in a ULEZ in the city centre.
Lorries should be banned from the city during rush hour. It is the prime time for them to meet pedestrians and cyclists. Besides how many times have you seen a lorry block up the entire balls at the falls or some other major junction? They aren't fit for city use.
I saw this on the news earlier and I really don't want to sound like a callous bastid but why is a story that's being used to highlight lorry drivers safety or some governmental obligation to road safety awareness etc etc. The man ran a red light. We don't need government intervention to tell us that.
It's tragic what happened to that young fella, we've all done risky things on the road i'm sure and the poor woman driving the HGV who did evrything right but still physically caused, not her fault, the death of another person.
It’s an inquest so it looks at all factors, that’s why the story talks about road and HGV safety instead of just focussing on the cyclist. Safety equipment not working, large blind spots etc contributed to the death. He’s crossed at a red man rather than jumping a red light on the road, something much more normal and socially acceptable.
All drivers should cycle on the road before they are issued a license. All people that want to ride a bike scooter etc on the road, should undertake a test and have a license to do so and adhere to the same conditions as those in cars regarding red lights etc. But there needs to be fluid road system to allow for all road users.
Fuck up.
How mature.
You want to prevent children from being able to cycle not the one to be speaking on maturity here. Pure car brained BS.