Hi everyone! This time I start from bikesto report that unfortunately from January 1 to April 30, thirty-six people died on Italian roads, and the data is partial because unfortunately some of the seriously injured will not make it. Asaps informs us in detail: there were thirty-two men and four women, sixteen cyclists were over the age of sixty-five, in four cases the cyclist’s investor fled.
It seems that the number of victims is declining, thankfully. But if you think that in Lombardy alone there were eleven deaths in four months, you can well understand that the problem remains very serious. And there is one type of accident that I find even more unacceptable than the others: it is what it often occurs in the city, when a heavy vehicle overwhelms the cyclist when turning. As happened in the center of Milan on 21 April last year, when a young thirty-nine-year-old mother riding her bicycle was hit and killed by a cement mixer that was turning right at the traffic light.
The driver of the truck, 53, tested negative for alcohol and drugs but is none the less at the center of a vehicular homicide investigation, it will be necessary to understand if he had put the arrow on, if he started from a standstill, if he could see the woman at the pedals. And this is where there’s a lot to get excited about: it’s not the first accident of its kind in the city, there are many heavy vehicles circulating, Is anyone dealing properly with the problem of the threat of these vehicles on weak users such as cyclists, pedestrians and motorcyclists? Because we too risk dying crushed like that.
I don’t want to blame the drivers, I don’t think they move more lightly than average. I also read that all N2 and N3 heavy vehicles (intended for the transport of goods, weighing more than 3.5 tons, up to and exceeding 12 tons) must compulsorily fit category V mirrors on the right-hand side facing downwardscalled approach or “wheelguard”, precisely to keep the road adjacent to the right front wheel under control.
Do they really have them all? Are there effective controls? Has anyone among the administrators bothered to give a squeeze to the phenomenon or do we proceed as with smartphones and ignore it? I’d love to hear what some of our trucker readers think, I know there are a lot. I read on the Sicurauto.it website that many European capitals have cracked down on the movement of trucks in the city and even that Europe has voted for new safety rules, in force since 2026, but that the manufacturers would have gotten in the way… although heavy vehicles represent about 2% of the vehicles in circulation and are involved in 14% of accidents with victims.
And while we’re at it, I’d like to clarify another point regarding trucks: many, among those who do roadside assistance and vehicle removal, they have a loading surface that culminates with a lethal, long guillotine blade. I understand that the loading ramp must have an adequate invitation, but is it impossible to study a mobile or retractable or folding protection or whatever, when the truck travels on the road? I don’t believe it and ask for information.
