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Emergency care doctors today called for urgent road safety measures after three cyclists were killed in three weeks in London.

The three specialist medics work on London’s air ambulance and are at the forefront of often desperate attempts to save the lives of injured riders.

They rejected Boris Johnson’s claim that reaching a “critical mass” of cyclists will make the roads safer.

They added that the cycle superhighway where French student Philippine de Gerin-Ricard died at Aldgate was “far from fit for purpose” and said that many council-designed routes are “even worse”.

Two of them first called for action 18 months ago in response to the rising number of deaths and serious injuries involving HGVs.

Three of the five cyclists killed in London this year died after collisions with lorries, including the latest fatality a week ago at Holborn, Alan Neve, 54, and Dr Katharine Giles at Victoria in April.

The two other cyclist deaths were caused by car collisions. The air ambulance, which flies a surgeon and paramedic straight to crash scenes, has been called to 30 critical incidents involving cyclists this year.

In an article for the Evening Standard, the doctors — Tom Konig, Ali Sanders and Mark Wilson — note the demands for London to adopt more cycle-friendly measures of continental cities and say: “We are falling behind and something needs to be done sooner rather than later to prevent more tragedies.”

They advised cyclists to “avoid sharing roads with buses and HGVs” by using back streets, adopting a “defensive riding” style, wearing visible clothing and a helmet and not using headphones. They say a helmet will go “some way to minimise brain injury” but will be of no use in preventing the most common cause of death — chest and pelvic injuries.

The three, who all cycle in London, say riders should not assume that a designated cycle route is safe. “Roads that have a simple white bicycle painted on the road are even worse,” they said. “The designers of these routes should consider cycling them daily and run the gauntlet along with the rest of us.

“The Cycle Superhighway 2 route that runs along the Whitechapel road on which a young girl from France was killed is far from fit for purpose.”

Dr Konig said there had been a “lot of political posturing” since last year over improved safety but little action. “No politicians are actually making any changes to the roads in their boroughs,” he said. “The recent death on CS2 at Aldgate was completely avoidable and therefore is all the more tragic.”

Andrew Gilligan, the Mayor’s Cycling Commissioner, said: “The number of cyclist deaths in London so far this year (five) is roughly half what it was at the same point last year (nine).

“We are moving as quickly as we can, but instant changes rushed without adequate thought could be counter-productive.”