Lawbreaking British government agency refuses to admit it was wrong

The husband of a lawyer killed on a pedestrian crossing has won his struggle to prove that the traffic lights failed to meet minimum safety standards and gave people too little time to cross. Iveta Iravanian, 33, was knocked down by a National Express coach near Victoria station in London on February 23, less than a minute after waving her husband goodbye when he dropped her off at work. Paramedics resuscitated her four times and she was taken to hospital by air ambulance. Two hours later, three police officers visited Leo Iravanian at his estate agency near Hyde Park to break the news that his wife of ten years was dead.

Mrs Iravanian had almost made it across the four-lane crossing but was crushed under the coach’s wheels just a few feet from the safety of the opposite pavement. There was a gap of only five seconds at the crossing between the green man for pedestrians turning off and the green traffic light turning on. Department for Transport guidelines state that the minimum period should have been 12 seconds. This is to ensure that pedestrians have enough time to cross in safety even if they step off the pavement just before the green man turns off. But Transport for London (TfL) ignored the guideline when setting the light phasing and also failed to comply with other safety recommendations.

Police told Mr Iravanian, 42, that his wife was to blame for her own death because she had ignored the red man on the traffic light telling pedestrians to wait. But he refused to believe that she had been reckless and he spent many hours at the crossing studying how pedestrians and traffic behaved. He became convinced that the crossing was unsafe because he noticed how people were caught regularly on the road as vehicles started to move. He informed TfL of his concerns but it told him there was nothing wrong with the crossing. TfL even ignored his specific complaint that one of the traffic lights had twisted around, obscuring the pedestrian’s view of the red man signal.

He decided to employ a private detective to find witnesses after the police refused to share with him any of the evidence they had gathered. He also paid £750 to a traffic engineering firm, Morgan Tucker, which specialised in road safety, to have an assessment of the crossing done. The most serious flaw it found was the seven-second shortfall in the crossing time. The report said: “It was observed on three occasions that pedestrians crossing towards the end of the green man period could not get to the other side before the traffic phase had turned green. The behaviour of drivers was, in all cases, not to wait for them to complete the crossing but to start moving forward across the crossing.” The report also found that the stop line for vehicles was too close to the crossing. The DfT recommends a minimum safe distance of three metres but the gap was as narrow as 0.8m.

After being told byThe Times of the findings, TfL at first denied that there was anything wrong with the crossing. A spokesman said that the report’s authors had been mistaken and added: “There are no plans to review signal timings at this part of the junction.” But this week, TfL contacted The Times to admit that it had failed to check the crossing before issuing its denial. In a new statement, TfL said: “Following an examination, this junction has been included as part of this year’s traffic signal modernisation programme. The signal timings will be reviewed as part of the design.” TfL admitted that a number of other signals did not comply with DfT safety guidelines but could not say how many. “They will also be modernised as part of a rolling programme,” it said.

Mr Iravanian said: “I am relieved that TfL are going to improve this lethal crossing but it is appalling that it has taken three months for them to admit there is a problem.” Last night TfL said: “Transport for London will vigorously deny at the inquest that the traffic lights contributed to Mrs Iravanian’s death.”

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