The friends and family of a cyclist crushed by a lorry while riding her bicycle in London have expressed anger at the coroner’s verdict that her death was an accident.

The London Evening Standard newspaper reports that 29-year-old trainee architect Rebecca Goosen was killed in April this year when her bicycle was hit by a 52-tonne cement mixer at the junction of Old Street and the Goswell Road in Islington, north London.

Ms Goosen was caught on the inside of the cement mixer and was crushed to death.

On Wednesday (28/10/09), an inquest at St. Pancras Coroner’s Court near King’s Cross heard that – although the driver of the cement mixer Vladas Urbanas checked his mirror before making the turn – Ms Goosen was caught in a ‘blind spot’ and he did not see her.

Mr Urbanas told the court:

‘My mirror was clear. When I started turning I didn't hear anything, then I felt my truck jump and I felt in my heart something had happened.’

Accident investigator Mark Crouch said that it was ‘entirely possible’ that Ms Goosen was ‘either partly or completely obscured to the driver’, although the cement mixer was fitted with ‘all the appropriate safety measures’.

After the coroner Dr Andrew Reid returned a verdict of accidental death, friends of Ms Goosen called for companies operating heavy vehicles to be forced to install additional safety devices to their fleets, such as proximity sensors.

Ms Goosen’s flatmate, Christina Schoenborn, 30, backed the Evening Standard’s Safer Cycling campaign. Speaking after the hearing, Ms Schoenborn said:

‘London is not safe for cyclists. I used to ride my bike, but not any more. People may argue that fitting sensors would cost too much, but it is a price worth paying. How much does a death cost in terms of ambulances, medical costs and coroners' courts?’

Cycling campaigner Celia Barlow said she was ‘extremely disappointed’ by the verdict returned.

‘There is no such thing as a blind spot. There are difficult-to-see spots, but there are measures that can be taken to make drivers aware of vehicles on their inside. Such measures would have saved this young girl's life,’ she said.

Ms Goosen is the third cyclist to die in an accident involving a cement mixer on roads in north London since 2006.

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