Madam, – Colm Fahy (May 29th) draws attention to a real hazard for cyclists and pedestrians: that of being hit on the head by a wing-mirror of a passing bus. Dublin Bus vehicles, in particular, have their wing-mirrors mounted quite low on the body, within striking range of anyone over 1.80 metres high.
When the bus is braking under even moderate forces the front-end drops, thereby bringing the mirrors even closer to victims. And we know from accelerometer evidence presented this year by Dr Ciaran Simms and colleagues from TCD that too many drivers are using excessive breaking effort (Accident Analysis Prevention, Vol. 41, p 1-9). Cyclists have to share bus lanes that are only a nominal 3 metres wide in many places and too many bus and coach drivers are overtaking the rider by “shaving” past them (this constitutes dangerous overtaking) when the correct manoeuvre is for the bus driver to move wholly out-of-lane so that the rider will not be “clipped” by the mirror.
The solution lies not in requiring potential victims to wear head protection but in dealing at source with this particular hazard. – Yours, etc,