Bus driver charged over cycle lane death

A bus driver has been charged over the death of a cyclist who was killed while riding home along a central London cycle lane.

Ms McCreery, 37, was a senior physiotherapist at St Thomas' Hospital and had got married just a year before her death.

She had told friends she was frightened of using the controversial lane, because it left cyclists exposed in the middle of the road, sandwiched between a bus lane and car lane.

But she told them she had no other choice but to use the route to get home.

The Blackfriars Bridge cycle lane has proved controversial since its introduction just months before the accident, despite being promoted by the Department for Transport as a model scheme.

Criticism centres on its position - between lanes of traffic rather than next to the pavement like most cycle lanes.

It is claimed this leaves cyclists isolated between buses and two lanes of fast-moving traffic on the busiest bridge in the City, which carries 54,000 vehicles every day.

Immediately after Ms McCreery's death Transport for London promised to review the situation, and has since removed the bus lane. But the cycle lane is still sandwiched between three lanes of fast-moving traffic.

Ralph Smyth, of City Cyclists, part of London Cycling Campaign, said: "The junction at the north end is the real problem. It is designed like an urban motorway for speeds of 50mph. Until the design is changed radically, it will remain an accident blackspot."

But TfL insists that most cyclists heading north over the bridge go straight into the City and not left along the Embankment, so it is safer to put cyclists in the middle of the road where they can head across the junction rather than on the left, forcing them to pull out in front of traffic to get to the City.

A TfL spokesperson said it would await the outcome of the police and coroner's investigations into Ms McCreery's death, and a safety audit by the Transport Research Laboratory looking at safety on Thames bridges expected in October, before deciding on a long term arrangement for the bridge: "We believe the introduction of the cycle lane would increase safety. We believed it at the time and still believe it is the safer measure."

The news comes as TfL revealed a 23 per cent increase in the number of cyclists using London's main roads, compared to the same time last year - and a seven per cent reduction in cycling accidents.

Mr Duncan, 21, of Edmonton, is due to appear before Southwark Crown Court on 10 September.