It's a very short blog from me this week, I had a phone call a few days ago telling me that my godparents daughter had died.

Joanna was killed after she was involved in a crash with a cement mixer lorry whilst cycling to work. Oxford Police bailed the 74-year-old driver of the cement lorry on suspicion of causing death dangerous driving following the collision. Joanna was 34 years old and worked at St Aldate’s Church as PA to the rector and was cycling to the church when the collision happened. Flowers and cans of diet coke have been left at the scene of the accident in tribute to Joanna, who wrote on her Twitter profile that she “runs mostly on diet coke”.

I hadn't seen Joanna for a number of years until a few months ago when we were both at her grandmother's funeral, but this news has come as a huge shock to me. I don't know the full circumstances of the collision so I'm not going to make any comment about this, but I have spoken in the past about how vulnerable cyclists are when on the road and I am conscious of this myself which is why I try to avoid cycling in traffic. Drivers need to be aware of the fact that they can kill someone when they are behind the wheel just with a momentary lapse of concentration, so put the phone down, keep your speed down and have some respect and care for those people around you, whether they are fellow drivers, motorcyclists, cyclists or pedestrians.

Cyclists, please take care and make yourself as visible as possible. As I rode home last week after hearing this news I caught up with a teenager riding a BMX in the dark on the road with no lights, his reaction to my comment that he really should get some lights was "I'll be ok". I only hope that he's right.

Based on information supplied by David Brown.