Cyclist escapes with his life when Boris Bike is crushed under wheels of cement mixer

A cyclist whose Boris bike was crushed under a cement lorry as he turned left on a London street was lucky to escape with his life yesterday.

The male rider was hit at 2.30pm on the junction between Southwark Street and Bridge Road in south London.

The cyclist appeared to be turning into a blue painted cycle lane when he was hit.

Donnachadh McCarthy, spokesman for cycling campaign group Stop Killing Cyclists, told the Evening Standard that the accident spot was a "classic junction" for cycling crashes because the road does not have a protected left hand turn.

It’s the same spot as where in 2011 Mayor of London Boris Johnson stopped to help a fellow cyclist who had been knocked off his bike and injured when a minicab driver opened his car door into his path.

The incident took place on in Southwark Street as Mr Johnson returned – on a Boris Bike, naturally – to City Hall following a meeting in the West End.

Mr Johnson telephoned for an ambulance and remained with the victim until emergency services arrived at the scene.

Last year we reported how the driver of a lorry that last year crushed a cyclist who was riding a Boris bike in London, leaving him with serious injuries to his head, chest and pelvis, was fined a total of £620 and banned from driving for six months. 

Anthony Farmer, aged 44 and from Dagenham, was fined £420 at Highbury Magistrates Court £420 and given nine penalty points for careless driving, and a separate £200 fine for driving a vehicle in a dangerous condition.

The male cyclist aged in his 20s continues to receive medical treatment for his injuries.

And just last month Claire Hitier-Abadie, who was 36, was killed by a vehicle involved in Crossrail works near Victoria Station while riding a Boris Bike on Thursday morning, making her the second cyclist to be killed while using one of the ubiquitous rental bikes.

The French-born woman moved to London last year from Paris, with her husband and two children.