Insufficient visibility of pedestrians near stationary lorries
Department for Transport received 2 coroners' reports about this hazard between 30 Jul 2015 and 30 Sept 2020.
They came from 2 different coroners in 2 coroner areas. A similar concern was raised again 1 time after the first warning.
A published response was found for 1 of the 1 earlier reports, stating 2 specific actions.
The story, report by report
Spacing grows with the time between reports.
“whilst the relevant EU Directives (2003/97/EC and 2005/27/EC) and associated legal requirements for some high-fronted goods vehicles require the fitting of a 'front blind spot mirror' (Class VI) of a certain size, shape and resulting view, the actual shape (convex) and size of such mirrors does not provide sufficient visibility of slow moving pedestrians (especially the elderly)”
Original on judiciary.uk ↗ Department for Transport responded, stating 1 specific action.Response (PDF) ↗
“will endeavour to explain the current legislation on vehicle construction matters and the steps being taken to address your concerns”
Web search (Tavily): No evidence found either way
A Reform Agenda for the U.S. Department of Transportation - Center for American Progress ↗- 5 years 2 months laterIdentical hazardConfidence 0.90 · higha different coroner
“standard class 5 and 6 mirrors create an avoidable risk cab drivers will not see other road users and pedestrians in close proximity to the cab when stationary.”
Original on judiciary.uk ↗ Repeated from the earlier report:classmirrorspedestrians
Department for Transport responded, stating 1 specific action.Response (PDF) ↗
“the DfT is working at international level to develop appropriate requirements to improve vision for drivers around large goods vehicles. This work includes improved direct vision for the driver through vehicle windows and the windscreen, a moving-off information system to provide a warning to the driver if a vulnerable road user is in front of a vehicle, a blind spot information system to detect cyclists alongside vehicles and provide a warning to the driver, and reversing detection using cameras”
Stated timescale: April this year
- All reports to Department for Transport
Each row is one judged link between an earlier and a later report. Open a row to read both quotes, found word for word in the originals.
2015 → 2020Mollie Gifford5 years 2 months after Giuseppina Incisivo · different coronerIdentical hazardConfidence 0.90 · high
Identical hazardConfidence 0.90 · highBoth reports highlight that convex front‑blind‑spot mirrors on large goods vehicles do not give drivers adequate visibility of nearby pedestrians, especially the elderly or those in low‑visibility clothing.
Giuseppina Incisivo · 30 Jul 2015
“whilst the relevant EU Directives (2003/97/EC and 2005/27/EC) and associated legal requirements for some high-fronted goods vehicles require the fitting of a 'front blind spot mirror' (Class VI) of a certain size, shape and resulting view, the actual shape (convex) and size of such mirrors does not provide sufficient visibility of slow moving pedestrians (especially the elderly)”
Original on judiciary.uk ↗ Mollie Gifford · 30 Sept 2020
“standard class 5 and 6 mirrors create an avoidable risk cab drivers will not see other road users and pedestrians in close proximity to the cab when stationary.”
Original on judiciary.uk ↗ Stated action in the response to the earlier report
“will endeavour to explain the current legislation on vehicle construction matters and the steps being taken to address your concerns”
Stated action
“will endeavour to explain the current legislation on vehicle construction matters and the steps being taken to address your concerns”
What happened next: No evidence found either way
The Department for Transport's statement about explaining current vehicle construction legislation and addressing concerns is not referenced in any of the provided sources.
“A Reform Agenda for the U.S. Department of Transportation”
“An Overview of the Department for Transport for the new Parliament 2023-24 November 2024 Design & Production by Communications T eam DP Ref: 015438 © National Audit Office 2024 Contents Introduction to the”
“The summary that follows was prepared to help the public better understand how the rulemaking process works so that you may more effectively participate in it.”
No evidence found does not mean the action did not happen.
Stated action · timescale: April this year
“the DfT is working at international level to develop appropriate requirements to improve vision for drivers around large goods vehicles. This work includes improved direct vision for the driver through vehicle windows and the windscreen, a moving-off information system to provide a warning to the driver if a vulnerable road user is in front of a vehicle, a blind spot information system to detect cyclists alongside vehicles and provide a warning to the driver, and reversing detection using cameras”
- Each report's concerns were extracted by Nemotron 3 Nano on Nebius Token Factory, each with a quote copied from the report.
- Concerns from reports to Department for Transport at least six months apart were compared by meaning (Qwen3 embeddings) and wording (TF-IDF).
- The closest pairs were judged by Nemotron 3 Super with reasoning on. Only identical or closely related, with confidence of at least 0.70, are shown.
- Every quote was checked by code as an exact substring of the original text. Names of staff and family are redacted, and the deceased are named by report title only.
| Link | Meaning | Wording | Judge | Coroner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 → 2020 | 0.80 | 0.23 | Identical · 0.90 | different |
Judge model: nvidia/nemotron-3-super-120b-a12b. How Nemotron did the work · Full methodology.
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Other chains for Department for Transport
This shows that a similar concern was raised again after an earlier report. It does not say why, and it is not a finding about any organisation or person. To report an error, see the corrections route.