More than 450 Londoners have been injured by bus wing mirrors since 2018, Telegraph data analysis reveals, calling into question one of Sadiq Khan’s flagship road safety pledges.
The number of injuries caused has been rising for the past three years despite London’s bus fleet shrinking, suggesting the problem is getting worse.
Under his Vision Zero strategy, Sadiq Khan wants to “eradicate” deaths and serious injuries from London’s roads.
Yet the mayor of London’s own fleet of buses is causing more injuries than ever before, with 2023 marking a record high in the number of people hit by bus wing mirrors.
Last year saw the highest number of wounds caused for six years, with 106 pedestrians being struck – an increase of 70 per cent.
A typical bus wing mirror weighs around 2kg complete with its mounting arms.
The London borough with the greatest number of collisions was Lambeth – with 11 of the 37 incidents recorded there over the six-year period occurring on a Friday or Saturday night.
Route 91, which runs between Crouch End and Trafalgar Square, recorded the most wing mirror injuries over the years.
Tom Kearney, 59, of Camden, was left in a coma after being hit by a bus wing mirror in 2009.
He suffered head and lung injuries thanks to the force of the impact and now believes there is a “conspiracy of silence” around the issue.
“It happened at a busy junction on Oxford Street. The mirror of a bus hit the back of my head and threw me against the bus and then down into the street,” he recalled.
Public awareness
Mr Kearney, who now campaigns for greater public awareness of bus wing mirror injuries, added: “Given the fact that TfL’s own data shows that the number of people killed and injured from bus safety incidents is now higher than when the present mayor took office in May 2016, the fact that there’s a rising number of people injured from bus wing mirror collisions should not come as a surprise.”
Despite the number of injuries reaching a record high, London’s bus fleet has decreased in size since Mr Khan took office.
Eight years ago there were 9,415 buses, while last year TfL said it had 8,643 on strength – a decline of 8 per cent.
“What is a surprise,” Mr Kearney continued, “is that all these alarming trends persist years after the mayor and TfL have announced a number of ‘world leading’ bus safety programmes and a ‘Vision Zero’ programme.”
‘Bus safety record worse under Khan’
Andrew Boff, the Conservative chairman of the London Assembly, asserted that London’s bus safety record under Mr Khan was getting worse.
“Bus related casualties were up 17 per cent in 2022 and up again in 2023,” Mr Boff said.
“Whilst we welcome the number of bus fatalities falling, what these figures actually show is that a significant number of people are still being injured by London buses each year.
“Despite the mayor having an 80-page bus safety strategy, he continues to brush off any criticisms of the safety of the bus network.”
Tom Cunnington, TfL’s head of buses business development, said the capital’s transport authority is ordering bus companies to replace traditional wing mirrors with cameras.
“Over the past three years, there has been an increase in injuries as Londoners’ travel returns to pre-pandemic patterns,” he claimed.
“We’re working to replace wing mirrors on our buses with camera monitor systems to eradicate the risk of mirror strikes, with 1,500 buses now fitted with these.
“All new buses on our fleet are fitted with cameras instead of mirrors and we’re also working to retrofit existing buses with these systems.”
Mr Khan, via his official mayoral office, did not respond to a request for comment.