Pothole accident

[Tangled Metal]

Took a tumble and got a broken radius bone head and other minor injuries for my trouble. Accident caused by me not spotting a huge pothole in time, by this i mean a reasonable judgement call that an oncoming car was a greater risk than the partif the road i was in turned out with hindsight to be wrong. My defense, such as it counts as a defence, is that my attention was with a dithering car that I couldn't work out if it was about to move out from behind parked cars into my path. The road has garages one side with cars parked and the other side sunken roadwork repairs that run along the road where pipes were laid. This means you have to ride in the middle of the road and get out of the way of cars coming the other way by riding over this repair bodge job. That was what I was expecting I do because of this car. In the end it pulled out then turned into the garage off the road before i could get there, at the point in time when I looked down and spotted the pothole as I was about to drop into it.

The damage caused to my bike read minimal, puncture and dent in the tyre. Probably a new inner tube or worse a new racer tyre. Not worth the hassle of taking action perhaps. Work will accommodate my 4 to 6 weeks of no lifting or physical work. No loss in pay. I'm still going to get the train but I'll be late in by 5 or 10 minutes. General manager said that's not a problem.

My only concern is the owners of the private industrial estate won't repair the roads. They've just repaired it in the last 8 years. One company in the estate who own their land got nowhere trying to get them to do my repairs. They ended up pouring concrete in a bar area near them and put hard core down in other areas. They're at the other end though. That end is virtually all potholes with hard core but it's like riding on a gravel track that's a bit lumpy. The way I went yesterday is holes in tarmac which means sharp edges and deep.

The other issue is my employer rents from them and relies on good will. They will raise the pothole issue but not push it and won't appreciate me pushing the issue.

My n partner thinks I should sue them. What do you think? There's not much damage caused except to me. How to proceed?

I'm not in CUK or BC or anything. I assume if the estate is private then the roads are too. That means it's not worth contacting council right? Or is it be worth contacting in case there's something they could do me to force the repairs?

My only concern is the state of the roads. On a dark morning or afternoon in winter I'll have difficulty seeing even the obvious ones.

[Psamathe]

I can't advise but regarding the responsibility for the roads, not too far from me a planning application turning a field into a small 14 house "estate" is going through and Highways have submitted (a lot of) input, part of which is along the lines of how normally the developer would build the roads on the "estate" to Highways standards and those roads would then be offered to be adopted by Highways who would take over ownership/responsibility (certainly responsibility unsure about ownership). This is a small 14 house development (and in this case the developer has said they do not intend to offer the roads for Highways "adoption") - but might be worth telephoning Highways to see if they are responsible for the roads. If they are might make your decision about what to do easier and if they say they are private then you've only wasted a phone call and are where you are now.

Wishing you a speedy recovery.

Ian

[PT1029]

You could tot up the train cost, tube/tyre cost, ask (in writing/e mail) the trading estate for the details of their insurers to make a claim. They might just pay up, but if the insurers get wind that the roads are not maintained correctly, they might threaten to up the premiums, which might focus the minds of the trading estate (which is your aim I guess, rather than the money).
Any photos of damage/scuff/bruise would be useful.
Obviously if it puts your boss in a delicate position, it might not be a good idea!

[Oldjohnw]

You’ve said here that it was your fault. I would delete that post soonest as it isn’t privileged. When you need legal advice go to a lawyer. Or have insurance.

Hope you don’t suffer too much discomfort and Godspeed in your recovery.

[mjr]

My n partner thinks I should sue them. What do you think? There's not much damage caused except to me. How to proceed?

I'm not in CUK or BC or anything. I assume if the estate is private then the roads are too. That means it's not worth contacting council right? Or is it be worth contacting in case there's something they could do me to force the repairs?

Is it worth suing them? I don't know. Maybe you could contact the usual injury lawyers and see if they fancy it, but I suspect not. I don't know the list price of a broken radius head these days. https://legal.wiggle.co.uk/ still seems to go somewhere, if you want to try.

You probably don't need even to contact the council to confirm whether the road is private: go to the county-level council's highways "report a fault" page and the pothole reporting app probably displays a map showing which roads they admit to being responsible for. I suspect it's private road, from your description, but it's worth checking if it's easy.

My only concern is the state of the roads. On a dark morning or afternoon in winter I'll have difficulty seeing even the obvious ones.

Well, your employer and the landlord should both be on notice now. It might be worth reminding your employer that the Health and Safety lot will probably take a dim view of "raise the pothole issue but not push it and won't appreciate me pushing" if someone now has a more serious crash... however, the flip side is that the landlord may react by simply banning cycling and requiring everyone to walk over the obstacle course, unless part of the estate has planning permission conditional on sustainable travel or a certain standard of road, which will be a pain to enforce, but might be worth a map search on your borough/district council website...

Sorry I have no easy answer. Getting private roads fixed is even more difficult than persuading government to maintain theirs.

[Paulatic]

Hope you recover well and any pain disappears.
Because the estate is privately owned I suspect they will turn a deaf ear and will entail a lot of head banging.. I would be grateful your employer is understanding and you aren’t going to take a big financial loss through this incident.
We’ve a similar estate up here in Dumfries https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/loca ... s-23524396

[Tangled Metal]

You’ve said here that it was your fault. I would delete that post soonest as it isn’t privileged. When you need legal advice go to a lawyer. Or have insurance.

Hope you don’t suffer too much discomfort and Godspeed in your recovery.

That was not how I meant it so I have clarified that a bit. What I meant was there were two main risks i was aware of, the long prior from the utilities work with associated junction potholes and cracks where it joined the old road surface. This i was avoiding by riding on the middle of the road. The second was a car whose intention was difficult to predict with certainty. As I don't usually ride down there only drive my van wheels don't hit this pothole. So i was unaware of its existence. The hazard of the car seemed more immediate than any pothole in my line of travel that I was aware of and had seen looking at the road.

Besides there's hazards all over when cycling and you have to be looking all over scanning for potential hazards and allowing for them. The deep pothole is one hazard that doesn't appear as suddenly as car pulling out but develops over time. Time that it could and should be rectified in. If the responsible body doesn't operate a responsible maintenance schedule they are responsible. Blaming the victim when they have enough things to keep on top of on a busy industrial estate road is not right. The road simply isn't safe.

A year or two ago a car got damaged and because the person who owned the car was a director of a company renting from the estate. He got his car fixed. That's only because of his position. Another estate based worker i know about didn't get anything.

My case isn't about money lost or pain I've got but about it being time they fixed the roads. However political probably means I am best not to kick up a fuss. As to riding through the b estate, I'm going to only ride the direct route to the station because it's the worst for poor quality roads which seems to be safer. It's so rough it's been repeatedly filled with hard core which has been eroded over time but the edges are sloping so if you can't avoid them you simply ride down and out of them.

[Tangled Metal]

Hope you recover well and any pain disappears.
Because the estate is privately owned I suspect they will turn a deaf ear and will entail a lot of head banging.. I would be grateful your employer is understanding and you aren’t going to take a big financial loss through this incident.
We’ve a similar estate up here in Dumfries https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/loca ... s-23524396

The worse road out is worse in terms that the area covered by holes is greater than the area without holes. Its just that the patches made by a company based there have softened the holes. It does look like the other road in a couple of places i passed before my accident but it was better leading to the accident hole, except for the sunken roadworks repair.

Anyway, I think the situation I will take from this is to inform the estate, record the location, move on and to be very, very careful through the b estate in future.

[Paulatic]

Is it the Lune?
I’ve sometimes cut through there from Willow lane and wonder why I did.
Son number 1 was run off the road by a car at one of those one way traffic calming bits on Willow lane. Broke his arm car didn’t stop. I think it’s left him a bit nervous on the road and I think he cuts through the estate to get to the cycle path along the Lune. He commutes to Morecambe so the rest of the way is traffic free.

[Tangled Metal]

Yes, that estate. It's bad isn't it!!

A few years ago now I commuted by train and used to walk along willow lane then up the hill to a passageway shortcut that's the station. Crossing a side street I very, very nearly got run over by a car accelerating away round the corner. However I am convinced I knew who it was and they had deliberately targeted me having seen me walking down willow lane. The same person and same car swerved towards me in the estate then went off towards where he worked. There's a bit of bad blood there for some reason.

There's quite a few nutters around there. The danger isn't just the roads. Lancaster has quite a few nutters. When I first moved up this way the national news did a piece on violence in cities. They did a bit of filming in Lancaster as a city with a particularly bad violence problem. However I still think there's some very sound people forming the majority.

[PH]

Bad luck, don't beat yourself up about it, these things happen, we're making marginal decisions all the time, mostly right but occasionally not.
I doubt your claim qualifies for much legal help without you paying for it, even if you were a CTC/BC member, there's a minimum personal injury claim that qualifies for a no win/no fee arrangement, not sure what that is now, I think it used to be £5,000 with at least £1,000 of that for the injury, but don't take me word for it.
I'd write to the estate management saying you think they've failed in their duty of care to maintain the road in a safe condition. I'd detail the losses and that you consider them liable. I'd keep the language and the claim reasonable, see where it gets you.
Good luck with that, but mostly take it easy and make sure you have a good recovery.

[Postboxer]

If I understand the circumstances correctly, the road is so bad you have to ride so far out into the middle of the road that it's putting you in the path of oncoming traffic? Perhaps mention this to the estate owners also.

[Tangled Metal]

Back to work today and I got my work glasses out, they're scratched. Scratched frame I knew about but there's scratches on both lenses. £200+ bill. Now I'm p1$$3d! Don't mess with my eyes man!

I won't get anything out of the estate and any repairs will be a couple of dollops of cheap tarmac. The only thing out of this is lessons re care on the road through there.

BTW the roads outside the estate on the way to the station aren't great neither. Fair get boxed around on the downhill bit on my brommie.

[Psamathe]

Only you (or at least "not me") can balance the employer relationship aspects, job security, etc.

But if you did decide to pursue claims/compensation I'd guess "Health & Safety (at work)" would be relevant. Your employer has responsibility for a safe environment and if they have landlords who also own maintain the access then I'd expect safe access to be part of that (noting I claim no legal expertise).

Ian

[PH]

Fair get boxed around on the downhill bit on my brommie.

Was this on your brand new Brompton, ouch! Do you think that was a factor?
I've also recently joined that club and potholes have suddenly become a lot more frightening. Though I've been pleasantly surprised at how a bit of front luggage calms it down, something to consider if you haven't already.