The husband of a young cyclist run over by a left-turning lorry at Bank today demanded that police reopen the investigation into her death.
Lawyers for Jin Chuan Zhou are writing to City of London police requesting it reconsider the decision not to prosecute driver Lee Williams for the death of Ying Tao, 26.
It came after a three-day inquest at City of London coroner’s court heard Mr Williams had indicated left 1.4 seconds before pulling off when the lights changed.
An audible warning system and one of two side sensors on the 32-tonne truck were broken.
CCTV footage from the Bank of England showed Ms Tao was wearing an eye-catching white helmet and enabled the City Police investigator to prove she was “available to be seen” in three of Mr Williams’s mirrors.
Mr Zhou, a bioscientist at Cancer Research UK, told the Standard: “Given the evidence that has been shown in court it’s hard to understand why there was no prosecution.”
Sally Moore, from law firm Leigh Day, said: “Having carefully considered the police collision investigation and sat through the three-day inquest, we will be writing to the City of London Police on behalf of Ms Tao’s family requesting that they review their decision not to bring criminal charges against the driver.
“We will also be making formal complaint about what appears to be a clear case of victim-blaming.”
City of London coroner’s court was told by City Police collision investigator Pc Tim Harryman that Mr Williams’ failure to spot Ms Tao as he turned left was not a “careless act”.
He said she was in the wrong gear, had placed herself in an unsafe position in a bike lane beside the lorry and had been too slow to move off when the lights changed.
He said there was no legal requirement for HGVs to have side sensors or audible warnings, but said Mr Williams would have known the speaker system was not working.
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Pc Harryman told the court: “I don’t believe it’s a careless act... it’s a very busy junction with lots going on and lots vying for Mr Williams’s attention. I can understand how Ms Tao would have been missed in that situation.”
Deputy coroner Dr Roy Palmer yesterday found Ms Tao, an Oxbridge graduate and strategy consultant who had been cycling to work at PricewaterhouseCoopers in London Bridge on June 22 last year, died as a result of a road traffic collision.
He said: “The rear wheel of Ms Tao’s bicycle came into contact with the front of a lorry that was turning across her path. She fell from the cycle and was run over by the lorry. She was pronounced dead at the scene.”
Dr Palmer said he had been deliberately cautious in his verdict as “I’m aware that there may yet be legal proceedings in another court”.
The Standard revealed in January that the City of London Police had decided, after consulting the Crown Prosecution Service, not to bring charges against Mr Williams.
Cynthia Barlow, chair of the charity RoadPeace, whose daughter Alex McVitty was killed aged 26 by a left-turning concrete mixer in the Square Mile in 2000, said: “ There does seem to be a victim-blaming attitude. Surely we just need to get objective assessments and learn from them.”
City of London police said in a statement today: “Our thoughts and sympathies are with the family and friends of Ms Tao, as they have been since this tragic incident took place. The police’s role is to investigate all circumstances surrounding an incident, not to apportion blame.
“An investigation into the circumstances of this incident was carried out and concluded in November 2015 with the decision to take no further action. At this time we have no plans to review this decision.”