crash on way home

Beeblebrox

You still can't just close a road - it may be that the accident happened just after the road was blocked and before signs were erected (although that's a daft way round to do it), or it was only a temporary blockage so CC approval wasn't sought - but in either case it's negligent behaviour.

Juju_uk_68

Re a private road -

Kato Vs Cutter at the House of Lords. Broadly speaking, a road to which the public have access is a road for the purposes of the road traffic act. Doesn't matter about the ownership. If you can go down it, then its public.

Of course if its a private road, they wont have maintance or insurance possibly, or if they do, not to the standards of a public highway.

Oh, and as for going too fast to go round the corner, there was a case decided of a motorcyclist who was test riding a kawasaki from adealer, skidded on cow shit, and it was held that leaving shit on the road meant it was forseeable there would be an accident, the farmer was found 1/3 liable, with the motorcyclist 2/3 for going faster than he could comfortably see or anticipate road conditions.

balfie

thanks everyone. amazingly, i've got the bike back and apart from a wee scrape on the lh hood and a bent front wheel all is well. i expected the worst, but that is tough mother of a frame from planet x!
i'm just going to clarify a couple of points:
i am ashamed that i wasn't wearing a helmet. it's the first time in 2 years that i'd forgotten it in the morning. karma i think. being steel mesh, the fence spread the load across my nut rather than whacking into it. more karma i think.
the road i was on was bendy and steep in the descent. easy bends, not technical and made easier by the fact that it's a very quiet road. the works vehicle that i passed coming down (safely) had spread mud all over the bottom section, so allied with the potholes made heavy braking a very dodgy option. in terms of access, it is open at the top and (usually) bottom. there are no restricting access signs.
when i asked what i should do about this, it wasn't with a mind to compensation it was in view of prevention. however, the company that had put up the fence have been round to lean on one of the witnesses, telling her there were signs and that it was my fault. she chased them from her door. i'm going to start dealing with this on monday, but in the meantime, thanks for your sympathy, empathy and sage advice. and just to top it, we got beaten at rugby. there's no justice