Cycling UK Forum

Hi, I'm new to this forum and looking for advice. I'm a keen lifetime cyclist and I'm trying to help my friend who had a severe accident when the fork steerer tube snapped on his hybrid bike (made by a very large bike company, that I don't really want to name). He lost consciousness and arrived in hospital having lost a tooth, fractured his cheekbone and cut his face and arm badly. It now also looks as if he will lose two other front teeth.

There was no one else involved in the accident, the forks broke (on a two year old bike) whilst cycling at a moderate speed on a flat road in East London. It's always been serviced by the shop it was bought from, has been kept indoors and has never been cycled more than 10miles from his home in London.

Too see what happened to the fork - see attached image, quite scary.



We have been in touch with the bike company who have offered to replace the bike. As the injuries would seem to be as a direct result of the failure of their product, whilst used in a very restrained manner, it seems reasonable to also request some compensation to help with the dental surgery that my friend will now require. They have said this is a matter for legal action, and they would not offer anything in this regard.

So, can anyone offer any advice on lawyers who might be able to help in this situation?

Any advice very gratefully received

A cyclist's nightmare failure, luckily very rare, but this is an appalling failure for such a low-mileage. Was he definitely the only rider from new? Is there any possibility that someone could have borrowed the bike and failed to tell him about, say, a head on collision into a wall? Even so, a heavy collision like this would usually cause bending, not fracture, so it looks like a manufacturing defect which should be fairly evident to an expert. If he's not in the CTC I can't advise on lawyers, logically it may be better to find a cycle specialist lawyer.

If your friend is not a member of the CTC or any other cycling group that gives legal advice, then it would be reasonable for then to contact Claims Direct. I think these are the same solicitors that the CTC use. They work on a no win no fee basis so are only likley to take the case on if they have a reasonable chance of winning.
I hope they get better soon.

Russell Jones and Walker are the CTC legal eagles. You don't have to be a member of the CTC to use them.

http://www.rjw.co.uk/

They have a no-win-no-fee arrangement.

That looks awful! It looks like a defect to me - it's not a place I'd expect the steerer to fail (not that it should anyway).

In the photo the broken part of the steerer is a different colour to the rest. Is this a trick of the light or a change in material? Be interesting to know what the forks are made of.

Edit: Looked at the picture again. I'm guessing that these are alumnium forks and that the change in colour is between the machined part of the steerer (for the crown race) at the bottom and the painted part above. It appears to have broken right at the transition.

I am not a metallurgist, but that looks like a failure due to the crystalline nature of the metal. I cannot see how any use/misuse would mean a fracture in such a location.

I hope that your friend soon recovers and that he gets the compensation he rightly deserves.

The broken forks need to be examined by a competent engineer, and a proffessional opinion obtained. A regular contributor to this forum may be able to help.
It looks to me like an aluminium steerer, with an external sleeve at the bottom which includes the crown race seat. I would guess that the steerer has fatigued and ultimately failed at or about the point where the external sleeve finishes.

I'd guess the machining has created a stress-raiser and the fracture has grown from there, but I think the fork steerer must have been brittle cheese to start with.

Yes,an independent experts report on the forks that shows failure through mis-manufacturing would be gold dust. RJW may have their own experts for thus but if not, my Waterlow's Legal Directory shows these guys:-

bob.dean@era.co.uk

chris@daw-con.fsnet.co.uk

enquiries@ssandg.co.uk

manufacturing.support@twi.co.uk

HTH

Blimey. How awful.

I can see I got off very lightly when my steel one rusted through around the same point - just one small scar on my chin to show for it.

Thanks for all the responses and links - all really appreciated.

A guy on a recent Channel 4 documentary was awarded £6000 in an 'out of court settlement' from a razor company when his faulty disposable razor left a small scar on his face (which was already scarred).

I would expect a claim in this case to be in excess of £10'000 considering the injuries described. A private dental bridge will cost £1500 alone.

I have no claim to know much about civil law, but I'd say the correct order of action is

1 - Preserve all the evidence of injuries and what caused them, in this case the defective fork and anything else relevant. Preserve receipts etc., for any payments made as a result of the event causing the injury.

2 - ASAP, and if necessary while you are still on with no 1, get proper legal advice ie from a personal injury lawyer who confirms that they have expertise in dealing with a claim caused by a defective product.

3 - Only make further enquiries about cost of repairs etc., as advised by your lawyer.

The logic behind this is that any claim will depend on the evidence and a competent lawyer will advise on whether there are legal grounds for making one. Part of the claimant's duty includes mitigating the expenses so expensive testing might be unnecessary, especially at this stage since the respondent may admit liability without too much fuss. OTOH, if more needs doing, a lawyer should be able to say exactly what it is. A lawyer should also give an idea of the likely amount of any compo and what it might cost (if anything.)

Here's one I prepared earlier. Although it was mainly concerned with personal injury after a collision, a lot of it holds good in any PI claim.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=49627

Can you please put a photo of the two fractured ends on here, end on so one can see all the fractured surfaces. It will probably be possible to see if its a fatigue failure from that. The other cause may be incorrect heat treatment.

Also, do you know if the headset had been kept properly tightened, or had been overtightened?

Al

These are the two images I have that show the each side of the break. The steerer tube appears to have been bonded into the shinier metal sleeve (that is in turn bonded to the fork crown) with a plug or join of mouldable alloy of some sort, this is what fractured.



No, I don't think the headset had been overtightened - my friend isn't the type to get spanners out for fun, and the bike shop that sold and serviced it are a very reputable East London independent, so I doubt they would have done so. It was bought new.

I'm pretty certain it has never been crashed into anything, it's just a commuting bike, used at most for 8 miles a day on London roads.

Thanks for the advice on how to proceed - we've photographed the bike and kept everything related to its purchase. Getting legal advice next week.