Cycling UK Forum

I've recently had my first serious fall in over 40yrs of road cycling. Saturday 18/8/10 sunny tea time, I was riding on a busy, recently upgraded A186 road dual carriageway when ahead I saw a gently angled 'slip road' type of thing across a seemingly flush dropped kerb onto a recently completed dedicated tarmac cycle track identified with signs/road paint. (If I can figure out how to attach a photo, I will.)
I was doing maybe 15mph into a head wind on my brand new dawes galaxy. I thought the track looked like the safest option.
You can guess the rest...
At the transition bike went one way me the other landing on head/shoulder/hip causing broken helmet/broken collar bone and extensive bruising respectively, plus damage to the bike. Ambulance...A&E....Fracture clinic....Sick Note....etc.
Re-visiting the scene a few days later I saw the cause of the accident. The apparently flush dropped kerb had a 1" bullnose upstand running its length.
I've checked DfT and Sustrans design guidelines for such things and they're very clear that the transition should be flush due to risk of loss of control.
On the road in question, post accident inspection showed some other access kerbs have these small upstands whilst others are flush.
I think the designer and/or contractor has got it very wrong. I'm just very glad in this instance I was wearing my helmet.
Anyone got any thoughts / similar experience?

chris1576 wrote:(If I can figure out how to attach a photo, I will.)

Yes, photo(s) please.

If you cannot work out how to upload . . . hint : see "Upload attachment" tab below. . . . post the photos to mbadmin AT ctc.org.uk and I will load them.

Be aware : Photos max file size 250Kb.

Does google streetview show anything useful . . . . . possibly not if the facility is new.

Sorry to hear about your fall. I wish you a speedy recovery.
This does remind me of a similar incident that happened to me near Clapham, a good few years ago.

chris1576 wrote:... Anyone got any thoughts / similar experience?

It happened to me, but with no injuries or damage in the early 1980's (I can date it because I was going to collect my Land Rover, which I owned 1982-1985)

It wasn't a cycle facility but a standard dropped kerb. In those days I used to use ni-cads and my lamp failed quite suddenly - as Nicads do - so I pulled off the carriageway to change them. The angle of the upstand just whipped my front wheel from under me. I've carefully avoided doing it again ever since, but if a cyclist crosses one of those kerbs at a shallow angle as I did, coming off seems almost inevitable.

Preserve the evidence of the state of the road which caused this (photos) and evidence of your injuries and the damage. Then you need a solicitor specialising in personal cycling injury cases.

The streetview below is a rather hazy shot of the junction betweem the A 58 Whitehall Road and New Lane, Gildersome. There is a kerb right across the mouth of the junction, whose angle would create just this problem for a cyclist. In the days when I tried to improve this sort of thing, my concerns were summarily dismissed, on the grounds that the kerb was vital for drainage.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&sourc ... 95.69,,0,5

Sorry to hear about your accident and glad you're on the mend. Having waited 40 years you obviously decided to have a good one.
Have you contacted the Local Highway Authority to establish if the specification were incorrect and alert them to the danger?
In your position I would.
Having worked in Local Government I suggest you write to them by letter including photographs, addressed to the Chief Executive, with a copy to your MP and perhaps the CTC. (Make it clear in the letter to the CE that a copy has gone to your local MP).
jonty

Sorry to hear of your crash chris1576

thirdcrank wrote:Preserve the evidence of the state of the road which caused this (photos) and evidence of your injuries and the damage. Then you need a solicitor specialising in personal cycling injury cases.

Defective installations of this nature are only too common throughout the UK, please do what thirdcrank advises, it's too late to avoid your crash but will help prevent similar incidents in future.

There is no excuse for this not to be a smooth tarmac joint.

If you have the energy and the will then I'd lobby rather hard to have it improved by losing the stones altogether and making the joint in tarmac. If they need a continuous channel for drainage then there is no reason not to shape the tarmac gently - but the channel will need to be wider/shallower/gentler here than else where.

As well as being perfectly flush is it just as important (probably more so) that the transition should be perpendicular to the direction of travel.
Any upstand at all (and the DMRB inexplicably allows 3mm) will cause problems if you try to take them at a glancing angle.

You will probably not get anywhere with the highways agency though - their argument is always that it is the responsibility of the road user to look where they are going and take appropriate care. They will probably also try to claim that the upstanding bull nosed kerbs were installed deliberately and are needed because of drainage (though they can never explain how that is supposed to help).

The message for cyclists: Always treat cycle facilities with extreme caution.

On the other hand they have the Design Manual for Roads and Bridges online, where you might be able to prove that they have not followd their own specifications.

Make them work for their money.

Access to a cycle path from a major road should not be designed in a way which is highly dangerous and unfit for purpose. Either the specification is wrong or the access has been incorrectly constructed.
Either way someone is at fault and should be held responsible.
In this case I think the Local Transport Authority is the DfT. This Department has a presence in the various Regional Offices. I would write to the head transport bod in the relevant regional office with a copy to the Minister and the head of the Highway Agency and, of course, seek legal redress.
jonty

If your only wish it is to prevent a recurrence, then the relevant highway authority is the place to tell as they are the only people who can put it right. (I've had a look on the Highways Agency network map and I cannot see the A186 there so presumably the HA is the local authority. Incidentally where is the A 186?)

http://www.highways.gov.uk/aboutus/6151.htm

IMO the highway authority is the last place to contact for a discussion about any sort of compensation whether you write to the top or bottom, since their insurers will only deal with it like any other claim: ie your interests will not be at the top of their list of priorities, if it's on the list at all.

This is why you need a specialist personal injury solicitor to represent your interests. There are plenty who will operate on a no win, no fee basis or similar.

I'm no lawyer, but I understand the broad issues to be, first have you a proper claim? In this case I think we are talking about negligence: did they have a duty of care towards you as a road user? IMO Yes. Did they exercise that care? It seems that they did not even follow recognised published guidelines so probably the answer is 'No.' Secondly, how much? (or as our more genteel learned friends might say the quantum which is merely Latin for 'How much?' but somehow more refined.) That's calculated on a recognised scale and allows for loss of earnings, pain and suffering etc. Not even a footballer's weekly wage unless you are permanently disabled but adequate to replace what you have lost. That may be reduced by compensatory negligence. I don't think that even an insurance company would argue that cycling onto a cycle track using the officially signed route amounted to contributory negligence, especially as you say you were wearing a helmet. (Presumably a cycle helmet.)

Chris, if the Transport Authority in this case is the Local Authority then as I suggest writing to the Chief Executive. You can find out if it's a DfT road or a Local Authority road by contacting the LA or your regional Government Office.
I would copy the letter to the DfT Regional Office, transport division, and the Highways Agency just in case this feature is being put in elsewhere. If it is a "design failure" which is being replicated elsewhere then the DfT should pick it up and run with it by raising the matter with all Local Highway Authorities and the HA.
I wouldn't rely on the Local Authority raising the matter with other local authorities throught the relevant Local Government Association, or if they did I wouldn't rely on it happening quickly.
The reason why I suggest informing the DfT is that the HA is simply the executive arm of the DfT. The DfT is the policy-making Authority and the HA is its implementation arm. The latter does what the DfT tells it.
jonty

Pete Owens wrote:You will probably not get anywhere with the highways agency though - their argument is always that it is the responsibility of the road user to look where they are going and take appropriate care.

Easy; pull right out into the centre of the road and then your approach to the curb can be perpendicular!

I've been looking for the A 186 (in an atlas, not on my bike ) and I cannot find it. I presume it's somewhere to the North and east of the A18 (from Donny heading out towards Grimsby sort of area ) Can anybody point me in the right direction?

thirdcrank wrote:I've been looking for the A 186 (in an atlas, not on my bike ) and I cannot find it. I presume it's somewhere to the North and east of the A18 (from Donny heading out towards Grimsby sort of area ) Can anybody point me in the right direction?

A186
Newcastle upon Tyne - South Shields.

Apologies, its the part of Earsdon Road that heads south west from the A192 in Whitley Bay, North Tyneside