A cyclist who had to have her left leg amputated after being dragged under a van at one of central London’s busiest junctions demanded urgent action today to prevent such accidents.
Marketing executive Veronika Pete, 30, “almost died several times” in the weeks after being crushed at the Marble Arch gyratory.
She was in a wheelchair for months and says her life is now “completely different”.
Miss Pete, from Bayswater, spoke out after the van driver was fined but not jailed.
She is campaigning to improve safety for cyclists and says the death and injury tolls will grow unless several London junctions are altered.
She and her boyfriend James Middleton have written to Boris Johnson appealing for action at the gyratory, where £1 million of safety improvements were made in 2009. Miss Pete was injured in December the following year.
She said: “I am very keen to use my experience to campaign for making cycling in London safer, to draw attention to cases like mine so authorities involved take this extremely seriously and do something about it.”
John Taylor, the 47-year-old driver of the heavy bullion van that hit Miss Pete, was last month fined £1,300 and given five penalty points for driving without due care and attention.
She said: “The back of my wheel was clipped from behind and I fell under the wheels and my leg was crushed. I knew it would need to be amputated... at that moment I just wanted to die. The physical and emotional impact is immeasurable.
"Thankfully I am able to do a lot with the help of prosthetics, adjusted accommodation and carers, but I am unable to work as much as I used to and there are things that I will never be able to do again.”
In the three years to December last year there were four collisions involving cyclists at Marble Arch, with two involving serious injuries. The junction is one of several being reviewed by Transport for London.
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Responding to Miss Pete and Mr Middleton, the Mayor admitted the junction was a “challenging environment to provide improved conditions for cyclists” but said improvements had been made.
He wrote: “I am very aware cyclists still have to complete complicated manoeuvres across multiple traffic lanes.”
Leon Daniels, of Transport for London, said: “Both the Mayor and TfL take cycle safety extremely seriously and we are acutely aware of the concerns cyclists have about this location.
"This is why the Marble Arch gyratory is being included as part of our wider junction review programme.”
