I wonder if YACF members could band together and help? I don't know in what way yet, but feel an urge. Don't you?
How about demanding that rather than putting an extra 2m on lorries, they add an extra 2 mirrors (at least) and side impact warning. Manouveuring any large vehicle with restricted visibility in public should require a banksman if you can't see the ground you are moving into. Simple to add increased visibility aids.
..d
Adding mirrors, or even warning devices, is still not enough if the driver doesn't use them or the cyclist rides into a hazardous location.
These are examples I have seen.
1) Me, driving, sitting at a roundabout entrance. Although I DO look in my mirrors the cyclist undertaking me was in my blind spot (despite me having blind spot mirrors fitted) and I was lucky that he was going just fast enough to get into my peripheral vision before I "closed the door" on him getting closer to the apex of the kerb as I pulled away due to road layout design.
2) Me, driving, pulling out into lane 2 of a dual carriageway on a slight right hand bend. This strange turn of my car put the rapidly approaching car in lane 2 into a blind spot. I couldn't believe that a fluorescent lime green Mondeo could vanish, but it did. I was lucky in that I heard the horn and aborted the lane change.
3) Me, cycling in Southend Dangerous Cycle Town. Approaching a new ASL where traffic was stopped at a red light. I used the new cycle feeder lane as there was not a left turn at that junction so I calculated it might be safe. As I blasted up the inside of the bus the lights went green and it pulled away and cut into my path so it could stop in the bus layby
Driver had good mirrors, but even with an electronic beeping device there would not have been time for it to alert me or the driver due to the speed differential.
There is a solution, and it is not trying to invent the technology or retrofit it to every vehicle. (and would you really be able to force every vehicle to retro fit all these new devices? Old trucks are still seatbelt and other such items exempt. What about 1920's vintage trucks etc?)
The solution is a combination of doing what we can with mirrors etc, but more importantly driver and cyclist education. The split between male/female casualties is worrying, but when on the road I can understand it as I see a definite trend of one sex undertaking whilst the other sex has the balls to pull out and overtake.