A COUNCILLOR has called for change after a female cyclist died at the scene of a crash yesterday.

The 32-year-old woman was involved in a collision with a HGV-mounted crane in Headington yesterday morning.

Police said the crash between the large lorry-mounted crane and the cyclist happened at the junction of Headley Way and London Road at around 9.50am.

Oxfordshire County Council’s cycling champion Andrew Gant said: “I was devastated to learn that a young woman lost her life in Oxford over the weekend.

“This tragic death is even more heartbreaking when you realise that it comes less than a year since a 35-year-old woman riding a bike on Horspath Driftway was killed in a collision with a bin lorry, and before that the death of an Oxford student, Claudia Comberti, who died when she fell off her bike and was struck by a bus on Botley Road.

“We don’t know what happened in this incident, but we do know that we can and should be working to prevent these tragedies by taking a proactive, preventative approach that prioritises traffic safety and treats it as a public health issue.

“We should be separating road space, so vulnerable road users don’t come into conflict with vehicles.

“In Sweden in the 1990s, they adopted Vision Zero which is a strategy to eliminate all traffic fatalities and severe injuries.

“They did this by prioritising active travel and making it a safe and accessible option for everyone.

“We should be doing this in the UK, and in Oxfordshire we are championing this approach. We so obviously need to do things differently.”

Anyone with information about the crash is asked to contact Thames Valley Police on 101.