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IT’S A DECADE since Victoria Lebrec was run over by a truck while cycling to work in London in 2015.
She lost her leg in the incident.
“I am certain that had the vehicle had better direct vision, or been fitted with some of the additional safety equipment now required, my crash would have been prevented,” Lebrec said last October, as stronger rules were announced for the UK capital.
After a grace period elapses next month, trucks that do not meet a strong ‘Direct Vision Standard’ must have additional safety equipment installed to drive through London. This includes a camera and sensors to eliminate the left-hand blindspot and detect pedestrians and cyclists, preventing left-hand collisions.
Better mirrors and a ‘moving off information system’ to the front of the vehicle – to warn the driver of the presence of a pedestrian or cyclist in their front blind spot – are also required. The height of traditional truck cabs and the positioning of their front windshield means a cyclist directly in front can be invisible to the driver.
London first implemented a Direct Vision Standard in 2021, banning trucks with the poorest visibility from the city. The latest changes significantly increase the level of visibility required.
The London Cycling Campaign has been fighting for these changes for 20 years.
“It’s a very welcome step in the right direction,” said group member Tom Bogdanowicz.
“Lorry drivers should not be forced to drive vehicles that restrict their vision of other road users.
“We’d recommend applying [these] standards in Ireland and elsewhere,” Bogdanowicz said.
Of 53 cyclists killed on Irish roads between 2019 and 2024, almost 10% died in a collision involving a heavy goods vehicle, the Road Safety Authority told The Journal.
Irish campaigners are watching London’s changes closely, particularly ahead of planned construction in the capital city.
Metrolink will be one of the state’s biggest infrastructure projects. The Dublin Cycling Campaign has called on Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) to require heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) that will service the many construction sites along the planned route to meet the direct vision standards mandated in London.
The Dublin Commuter Coalition made a similar call. TII has said in response to these submissions that its main works contractors will be required to comply with the Direct Vision Standard.
The Journal asked the Department of Transport whether the government was considering doing anything like London to implement higher standards in Irish urban areas.
The short answer: no.
The Department said it welcomed incoming EU standards that will improve truck vision. However, in its view, and despite the centrality of camera and sensor technology to London’s initiative, the EU’s standard “relates to the cab design for HGVs and is not a retrofittable technology”.
“As these newer trucks make their way onto the Irish market the Department is confident that road safety will be improved.
“However, making these systems mandatory on current trucks in circulation is not currently being considered,” it said.
EU rules requiring a larger field of vision for trucks have been agreed, but it will be several years before they fully kick in.
Irishman James Nix, vehicle policy manager at Brussels-based environmental NGO Transport & Environment, told The Journal that the new EU standards “will stop the sales of trucks with poor vision – but only from 2029″.
Before 2029, it is “vital” that hauliers and governments focus on truck safety ratings that are now being published by the European vehicle safety watchdog Euro NCAP, Nix said.
Euro NCAP released its first safety ratings for heavy good vehicles last November, including a “CitySafe” label for trucks with the best vision and safety systems for protecting vulnerable road users.
The difference between the best and worst performing trucks in the watchdog’s first set of analyses is stark: whereas one Volvo truck has 15.3 cubic metres direct vision, one three-star truck, the Man TGX, has just 4.1 cubic metres.
“Both trucks are new designs, but sitting in the seat of the Volvo the driver sees nearly four times more critical road space around the cab compared to driving the MAN,” Nix said.
Because MAN obtained EU approval for this model in 2025, it can continue selling it right up until the new EU rules enter force in January 2029, despite the very poor level of direct vision, Nix added.
He said that the watchdog’s tests also take into account automatic emergency braking.
Most truck makers now offer automatic emergency braking to reduce crashes when moving straight ahead, such as into a pedestrian crossing the road or into a cyclist in front of the cab. However, new Volvo and Mercedes models are available with automatic emergency braking that operates along the passenger side.
“This is a major blindspot, and the biggest problem when trucks are turning in urban areas,” Nix said.
He urged haulage firms to study Euro NCAP’s ratings, adding that this could be of commercial benefit as, over time, more urban areas may follow London’s lead and ban the worst performing trucks.
The new watchdog ratings give cities the option to reshape the market for new trucks, Nix said.
Pressed on what Irish cities could do, he said that if a handful of Irish cities came together and set a 2035 deadline after which all trucks entering their areas would need a CitySafe label, this would “start reshaping purchasing straight away”.
“Truck buyers would sit up because resale value is important,” Nix said.
“The UK market is already switching to safer trucks due to London’s standards, so resale options for poor performers will be limited.”
Feljin Jose, a Green Party councillor in Dublin and the party’s transport spokesman, said state bodies can lead the way by requiring Direct Vision Standards for vehicles on more large construction projects, as has been promised for Metrolink.
“This could force the industry to adapt,” Jose said.
Trucks have large blindspots because the regulations allow them to have large blindspots.
“Safer designs are possible and our regulations need to start insisting on them.”
Truck design alone is not a silver bullet, according to Damien Ó Tuama of the Irish Cycling Campaign.
Heavy goods vehicles are largely banned from Dublin city centre since the opening of the Port Tunnel in 2006, but Ó Tuama believes more could be done to reduce the number of trucks on Irish urban roads by changing the waste collection system that allows multiple companies to operate on the same streets.
For Ó Tuama, dedicated road space for vulnerable road users remains the key change needed to create a strong cycling culture and allow everyone – including older people and children – to cycle safely. That means cyclists and trucks travelling in segregated zones.
On narrow roads where space has to be shared, bringing speeds down to 30km/hour is essential, Ó Tuama said.
Niamh O’Reilly, a lecturer in geospatial surveying at TU Dublin researching cycling safety in Dublin, agrees.
“We need to design for our most vulnerable – children and older people – and then it will be safer for everyone,” O’Reilly said.
She added that one important infrastructure change on roads where cyclists and trucks share space is advanced stopping boxes, so that cyclists waiting at traffic lights are far enough ahead of trucks that the drivers can see them.
The Road Safety Authority said it urged motorists to slow down and look out for all road users, including cyclists, on this Bank Holiday Monday.
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