Death of Naoko
Our sympathies go to the family and friends of Naoko
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Below from http://www.hammersmithtoday.co.uk/default.asp?section=info&page=conaccident003.htm
A woman in her twenties has been the victim of a fatal collision in Hammersmith today (28th April).
The incident occurred this morning at around 8.20am. Police and ambulances services were called to the scene but the woman was already dead when they arrived. She had been hit by a waste services lorry. [The lorry was owned by PHS WasteTech]
The road has been closed for most of the day leading to traffic problems in the area.
The victim has not been named and next of kin have not yet been informed.
Note blue sign indicating the route is approved for cyclists
The truck involved in the collision
Pictures from @alien8
A police spokesman said, "We were called at 8.24am to a fatal collision between a cyclist and a lorry. Investigations into the cause of the accident are continuing."
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The London Fixed-gear and Single-speed forum has been covering her death.
http://www.lfgss.com/thread64209.html
From Richh66
On behalf of Naoko's workmates, I would like to thank you all for your messages of support. Naoko was a Japanese national who had lived in London for 10 years. She was quite a shy person, but loved her bicycle and regularly did the trip from her home in the West Hill area of Wandsworth/Putney along the safe path alongside the river to the office in hammersmith. I do the same journey on a daily basis, albeit a little later and am finding it very difficult to understand how circumstances arose for this tragic accident. Her parents will come to London for the pm next week. We will miss her beautiful smile , her kind nature and remember her always. Kindest regards Rich
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Scene of the incident four days later. This is Queen Caroline Street looking North towards Hammersmith Broadway. Worlidge Street is on the left.
Much of the information has come from Alien of the lfgss forum. According to Alien, Naoko was travelling North on Queen Caroline street, and the Lorry was coming towards her, ie towards the camera in the photo above.
Worlidge Street
was given as part of the diversion after a recent clamp down on cycling
beside the River on the Lower Mall. This clamp down may not have affected
her route if she was working in an office in Hammersmith.
see http://www.hfcyclists.org.uk/CyclingOnTheLowerMall.htm
[large photos by John Griffiths]
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Preliminary Police Report - details so far from Justin Bennett of the Metropolitan Police, who has authorised this information to be released :-
Dear all,
I have some more information regarding the fatal road traffic collision
that happened in Queen Caroline Street on 28/04/2011 at 0820 hours. A
cyclist was travelling north-east. When she was about 15 metres south-west
from the junction with Worlidge Street the near-side of her bike hit a
car that was correctly parked by the north-west kerb in the parking bay
and fell off the bike. At the same time a refuse lorry was travelling
south-west leaving a gap of 1.5 metres between it's off-side and the row
of parked cars (by the north-west kerb) at 15mph. The cyclist fell between
the front and rear axles of the refuse lorry, went under the rear wheels
and died as a result of her injuries.
The parking bay was fully occupied with parked cars. The weather was dry, about 15 degrees Celsius. There were no defects with the road or its layout that could have contributed to this collision.
I have looked at the collision statistics for 36 months to Dec 2010 and found that, whilst there were two collisions involving pedal cyclists nearby, neither were similar to this one; both involved the pedal cyclist making a right turn.