A Crossrail lorry driver accused of causing the death of a Boris Bike rider from Marylebone in front of hundreds of commuters appeared in court yesterday.

Alan Warwick, 61, collided with mother-of-two Claire Hitier-Abadie, 36, who was pronounced dead at the scene of the incident in Victoria on February 19 this year.

Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard Ms Hitier-Abadie’s bicycle was crushed under Warwick’s Volvo Crossrail lorry during the morning rush hour just before 8am.

The French computer science graduate moved to London from Paris last year with her husband Pierre and her two young sons and had been living in Marylebone.

She became the second rider of a Boris Bike to be killed since its inception in 2010 and the fourth cyclist to be killed on the city’s roads this year.

Warwick appeared in court charged with a single count of causing death by careless driving.

Kate Shilton, prosecuting, said: “Shortly before 8am on 19 February police were called to a road traffic collision between a Gordon LGV lorry being driven by Mr Warwick and a peddle cycle being ridden by Ms Hitier-Abadie at Bressenden Place, SW1.

“Ms Hitier-Abadie was on her way to Victoria train station in order to catch a train where she was due to start a new job.”

Warwick from Rayleigh in Essex, offered no indication of plea and was bailed to appear at Southwark Crown Court on November 27 for a preliminary hearing.