Call to make cycle mirrors for lorries compulsory

Boris Johnson was today facing calls from the London Assembly to improve cyclists' safety by ensuring all lorries in the capital are fitted with safety mirrors.

Members will warn that more than one life a month is being lost while an EU directive that all lorries built since 2000 be fitted with safety mirrors is yet to be implemented.

They will demand the legislation is brought into operation without delay and call for the law to cover all lorries, rather than just ones built in the last eight years. The call for the wider use of Fresnel lenses, which help drivers see cyclists on the passenger side of their vehicle, is in a motion submitted by Assembly member Joanne McCartney to today's Mayor's Question Time.

In it, Ms McCartney says that as many as 18 lives a year could be saved if the mirrors were compulsory. She said: "Unofficial figures collected by the London Cycling Campaign suggest that nine cyclists have died so far this year in London as a result of collisions with lorries." One option is to alter the conditions of the low emission zone, which dictates the standards lorries and other large vehicles must meet to enter London, to include a stipulation they must have a safety mirror.

A spokeswoman for Transport for London said it had distributed 10,000 Fresnel lenses to improve cycle safety and also supported the implementation of the EU directive.

The Department for Transport said a consultation on how to bring the law into effect would end tomorrow and the directive would then come into force from the end of March next year.