THE cycling Mayor of London almost came a cropper after the rear door of a passing lorry flew open and caught a parked car—dragging it across the road in front of him. It was a narrow escape in Narrow Street as Boris Johnson peddled through Limehouse

By Mike Brooke

THE cycling Mayor of London almost came a cropper after the rear door of a passing lorry flew open and caught a parked car—dragging it across the road in front of him.

It was a narrow escape in Narrow Street as Boris Johnson peddled through Limehouse.

Today, he described the dramatic moment he faced at the weekend as the lorry overtook him in London’s East End.

“This incident reinforces the need to make our roads safer for cyclists,” he said.

“I am relieved no-one was hurt, but determined to make London the best city for cyclists in Europe.”

WIRE COAT-HANGER

A wire coat-hanger had been used to tie together the defective rear doors of the lorry, the Mayor discovered.

The doors flew open when the lorry went over a speed bump and hooked the windscreen of a parked car—dragging it along the street for several feet, smack into another parked vehicle.

Boris was cycling with his City Hall traffic commissioner Peter Hendy and transport policy director Kulveer Ranger when the lorry passed them.

MIRACLE ESCAPE

Mr Ranger said: “It’s a miracle none of us was hurt. We were in single file when I heard a scream and a crash and suddenly a car brushed past me and landed sideways into another.”

The party of 15 had been on one of a regular series of trips investigating possible routes for cycling super highways’ across Greater London. The group carried on, shaken and stirred, to the Isle of Dogs.

The driver was later interviewed at an East London police station, but not arrested. He was released after being reported for keeping a vehicle in a dangerous condition.