TRANSPORT bosses have been urged to introduce new rules in Oxford that would force lorries to fit life-saving side guards.

Oxford City Council backed the measure in December and chief executive Peter Sloman has now called on Oxfordshire County Council to implement it.

The move would require vehicles heavier than 3.5 tonnes to be fitted with the guards, which prevent cyclists being dragged under the wheels after a collision.

Mr Sloman said it could be a similar scheme to one approved by Transport for London.

In a letter to county council chief executive Joanna Simons he wrote: “It is in our collective interests to encourage cycling on our roads and make cycling safer.

“I hope you will join us in these moves.”

After passing its own motion in December, Mr Sloman said the city council had already installed cycle safety bars on the majority of its own vehicles.

It had also updated its methods of arranging contracts with private firms, so suppliers made the same changes, he added.

But going one step further and banning lorries without the safety bars from Oxford would require a new traffic regulation order, a power the county council has.

The restriction proposed by the city council would be almost identical to one set to take effect in London from September this year.

In February Transport for London approved rules that will stop vehicles heavier than 3.5 tonnes from using London’s roads unless they had “basic safety equipment fitted”.

In Oxford, calls for the extra protections have been spearheaded by Summertown city councillor Andrew Gant, who put the December motion to full council.

Mr Gant said: “I welcome the steps the city council has now taken to implement this motion.”

In April 2007, 22-year-old Oxford University student Tsz Fok died after being crushed under a lorry’s wheels at the junction of Broad Street and Parks Road.

An inquest in 2008 was told by the tearful driver of the lorry, Trevor Ashworth, that Mr Fok must have been in his vehicle’s blind spot.

In 2011, 34-year-old Joanna Braithwaite was also killed in a crash with a cement mixer in Woodstock Road.

County council cabinet member for transport David Nimmo Smith was unavailable for comment.