Veolia is to invest £5 million on new safety measures to improve the safety of its fleet of vehicles for other road users, pedestrians, and cyclists.

The investment will see new low entry, high vision vehicle cabs brought in over the next two years to support Transport for London’s Construction Logistics and Cycle Safety (CLOCS) programme, designed to improve road safety.

In partnership with Renault Trucks UK, the new 26-tonne low entry cab vehicles will use greater window areas and a nearside vision door to improve driver visibility and reduce blind spots, which research published by the University of Leeds says allows the driver to respond more quickly to hazards.

The investment comes after several incidents involving waste vehicles and members of the public over the last few months, highlighting the need for improved safety measures.

Earlier this month, Diane James from Tycroes in South Wales was killed in a road traffic collision with a recycling lorry on the A40 between Manordielo and Llandeilo. She was taken to hospital but was announced dead at the scene. In October, a seven-year-old girl was killed in a collision with an empty skip lorry in Coventry.

Also in October, Scott Hamilton, 44, a bin lorry driver working for Stirling Council, was jailed for a year after reversing into and killing an 80-year-old man during a collection round in 2014.

Commenting on the investment, Estelle Brachlianoff, Veolia’s Senior Executive Vice-President for UK & Ireland, said: “‘Work safe, home safe’ is our top priority for both our teams and for the communities where we work and this emphasises our key commitment to safety. By introducing this development for our fleet we will help to safeguard other road users and our crews and support the London Mayor’s new five-star rating Direct Vision Standard for HGVs.”

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan launched the capital’s Direct Vision Standard in September, using a star system to rate HGVs from zero (lowest) to five (highest), based on how much a HGV driver can see directly through their cab windows, as opposed to indirectly through cameras or mirrors.

John Avery from Renault Trucks National Fleet added: “By working with Veolia we have been able to gain a real insight into the complexities of their operating environment and to deliver an ex-factory solution designed around their urban cycle.

“This project has helped us to look at how, by working with our customer and taking an innovative, solutions-based approach, we can make significant, cost effective advances in safety and operational performance.”