Cycling UK Forum

Last Saturday as I was riding through leicester I hit a big lump in the road, my bike bounced and sent me over the handlebars and sliding down the road. My bike is slightly damaged and there are holes in my coat, I'm also bruised and have quite badly damaged my elbow.
I am wondering if there is any chance I could claim against the council as it is their responsibility to maintain the road, I don't want to make a big thing of it but it's going to cost me £30-40 to fix my bike.

Thanks
Sam

How about just accepting that life is risky and taking responsibility yourself?
I find it ludicrous that cyclists or any other road user thinks they can sue highways authority / local council just because a poor surface caused them a problem. Maybe you should have cycled with more care?

I don't want to sue them, as I said before I don't want to make a big thing of it. I was simply wondering if there is a standard procedure of complaint. Even if I just get the road fixed I'll be happy.

Sam

How about contacting CTC for advice.

Isn't it what they are there for?

I spose it might qualify under Fill That Hole:

http://www.fillthathole.org.uk/

I don't think you'll get anywhere with the Council. They will probably say that their highway inspection regime complies (with whatever the statutory requirements are) and that they carried out their inspection within the regime.

It might be a different matter if you'd reported the defect and they'd failed to act, then someone else fell over it (assuming the defect really is a defect), or if the obstacle was part of roadworks that wasn't correctly protected.

I once broke a wheel in a pothole and got nowhere with the Council, except that they repaired the hole almost immediately.

A work colleague wrote off a pair of racing wheels on a hole in Darlington some years ago. The council eventually offered to repair the wheels, when they found the repair was more expensive than new wheels he got new ones!
If you prersist you should get some recompense.

tobyj wrote:How about just accepting that life is risky and taking responsibility yourself?
I find it ludicrous that cyclists or any other road user thinks they can sue highways authority / local council just because a poor surface caused them a problem. Maybe you should have cycled with more care?

What absolute garbage , the council has ultimate responsibility that they often disregard even when they have been told numerous times about unsafe roads.

There are a number of claim companies that will take up the case, take a look on the net.

It's worth dropping a letter to the council with an estimate for bike repair and a new coat (LBS can give you an estimate). I successfully made a claim against British Gas after my wheel was damaged by badly repaired roadworks. I claimed the cost of a new rim and rebuild, about £60.

Worth getting a photo of the lump/hump if you can and also noting the exact location.

A Council may have the 'ultimate responsibility' to keep roads and footpaths 'safe to use' but in practice they rely on technical standards and procedures. If those are adequate it would be difficult to press a successful claim through the courts. They cannot guarantee that every piece of road or footpath is in perfect (or even safe) condition 100% of the time, and a court would not expect that.

I agree but all to often councils ignore reports from the general public.

Over the weekend I was nearly thrown from my bike having ridden over a 'kicker' in the middle of the road, I checked CTC's report system and found problem was reported over a year ago to my local council, clearly a serious failing in their duty of care.

If present systems and procedures are not good enough to secure the safety of the road using public then those systems need to be improved and certainly the general public need to be informed ( and encouraged ) on how to raise problems via a reporting system operational 24hrs a day.

.

Thanks for the replies, I think I will write to the council just to let them kow what happened and see where I get from there.

Sam

If nothing else, it is worth reporting the hazard - to ensure it gets fixed before someone else gets hurt there. It may be that it has been reported before and not acted upon.

I succesfully claimed for a replacement set of wheels from Trafford Borough a couple of years ago when a lot of surface water on the road obscured a pothole, which I hit - fracturing front hub at spoke holes and turning my rear wheel into an ellipse.

I reported the defect and wrote in to claim - their insurers initially rejected my claim and provided a list of complaints and repairs with the "statutory defence" that a once a year walkover was sufficient. When they repaired the pothole, they also did another 17 in the area - badly. I photographed the poor repairs, showed they hadn't addressed the drainage issue that contributed to the condition of the road surface and queried how a visual walkover survey could predict the rate of deterioration of the road (about as good as a fortune-teller).

I received a cheque in settlement shortly after.

Your local Highways Authority has a duty to maintain all roads under its care to an acceptable standard. In an effort to save money, highways authorities have cut back on inspection and maintenance and seem to have a complaints-driven prioritisation system for repairs. Often the problem of poor road surface is due to shoddy workmanship of water/gas/electricity, etc utility contractors after trench works. If these were better supervised then a lot of road defects wouldn't be there.

R

samuelhardman wrote:I don't want to sue them, as I said before I don't want to make a big thing of it. I was simply wondering if there is a standard procedure of complaint. Even if I just get the road fixed I'll be happy.

Sam

could you make a claim with your health insurance if you have any??