A Victorian Coroners Court finding into the death of a rider in Melbourne last year has highlighted the problem posed by the use of truck and "dog trailer" combinations in the Australian construction industry.
Evidence presented at the court indicated that Yukako Fukuhara, 47, of North Melbourne, had moved into the gap between the truck and trailer when merging from the adjacent lane.
The Deputy State Coroner Jacqui Hawkins concluded that Fukuhara may not have been aware that the truck and trailer were one vehicle.
Fukuhara was travelling along King Street towards La Trobe Street in the left lane when she encountered backed up traffic in her lane. She and other vehicles moved over to the next lane.
A slowly moving 17-metre-long truck towing a 5.6-metre trailer was in the adjacent lane. The gap separating the truck and the trailer was approximately 4.2 metres.
As Fukuhara moved into the gap, the trailer clipped her bike and she fell and was run over by the rear wheels of the trailer.
The court heard that Fukuhara, who was in Australia studying English, would not have experienced such truck-trailer combinations on Japanese roads.
Bicycle Network is aware that truck-dog combinations are a risk to riders. Most people who ride bikes will have experienced the disorientating sensation of being passed by a tipper truck, seeing a gap in traffic in their peripheral vision, then being spooked by the sudden appearance of a dog trailer.
The truck-dog combination is not only foreign to Japan, but is shunned in many counties and banned in cities around the world.
However, they have a strong foothold in Australia and won’t be eliminated overnight.
In Victoria, the contracts for state government’s projects such as the Metro and Westgate tunnels stipulate special modifications for all construction trucks to make them safer around construction vehicles.
However, these measures do not address the problem of the gap between the truck and the trailer.
Separately Bicycle Network continues to work with governments to advance truck safety. This includes a project examining and seeking solutions to this particular problem.
The Coroner has requested that the Department of Transport and Planning, and the Transport Accident Commission consider developing a public awareness campaign to highlight the dangers of cycling around trucks (trailer trucks in an urban setting).