Boris Johnson's near thing with a truck

Bunnyhopper

From the Guardian

Check out the video here.

Boris Johnson's 'near-death experience' with lorry caught on camera

Footage of Boris Johnson's near miss with a lorry while out cycling shows the London Mayor lucky to be alive

Toby Helm, Whitehall editor
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 23 May 2009 14.21 BST

One of Boris Johnson's missions as Mayor of London is to get more people out of their cars and on to their bikes.

But anyone who watches CCTV footage of the mayor's last outing on his own bicycle is likely to be put off for life.

On Friday morning Johnson headed out in London with transport minister Lord Adonis and Kulveer Ranger, his director of transport, to look at potential sites for new cycle "super highways". The routes are part of his plan for a "cycling revolution" in the capital.

Round a corner peddled the mayor and the minister, enjoying the ride, until a large lorry overtook them.

In what is being described as the mayor's "near-death experience", the lorry's back door then suddenly flew open, dragged a parked car into the street and smashed into another – just feet from Johnson, Adonis and Ranger.

A CCTV camera which caught the drama obscures the cyclists during the collision until 30 seconds later a figure that is unmistakably Johnson emerges, helmet in hand, scratching his head and lucky to be alive.

An aide to the mayor said: "It was pretty awful. They were shaken up and Boris was shocked. But it makes the case even more for his super highways."

RHunce

jesus that is crazy he really is lucky to be alive

mloc123

<troll>

If he had a helmet on he would have been fine anyway.

</troll> :pac:

humbert

The truck driver seemed remarkably calm getting out after that.

Lumen

Holy crap!

DirkVoodoo

Forget cycling, I've been put off shopping for life:

Rolls Royce crashes into a Tesco

BostonB

mloc123 wrote: »

<troll>

If he had a helmet on he would have been fine anyway.

</troll> :pac:

Or if they'd stayed in the cycle lane lol.

Freak accident.

pburns

Glad he's OK. I like old Boris - he's able to laugh at himself and not half the baffoon he makes himself out to be. Funny fecker as well.

I love London, my favorite city. If these cycle-lanes go ahead I'll be going over to tour the place on a bike.

A guy I know who used tgo stay in Woking claims you can cycle from somewhere around Weybridge, along a track/road beside the Thames right into the city (close enough to the centre). Anyone know anything about this?

Turbulent Bill

Very OT, but Lord Adonis?! Bet Noel Dempsey feels a bit inferior at the British-Irish meetings...

GlennaMaddy

humbert wrote: »

The truck driver seemed remarkably calm getting out after that.

He also seemed to be in a hurry to pass the cyclists judging by the way he went over the ramp