Crashed and it wasn't my fault

david13

Well cut a long story short, I went over a pot, sort of flipped and span landinng on shoulder, suicide rolled on to my arms and then flipped over again onto my other arm and then on to my back, arms, shoulder and right knee, pretty messed up and sore, road rash hurts!!!

Any my bike is badly damaged, new rear derailer (sram x7), ned handle bar, and maybe new rear wheel and disc break

Thing is it was of a pot hole...
Do I have any grounds to claim for money, or im I becoming American trying to sue someone for crashing?

Aidy

Whilst it is kinda annoying, I sorta fail to see how you can claim it wasn't your fault.

I mean, you did ride into it. It's not like it it snuck up suddenly and jumped into your path.

That said, there's various past precedents for claiming based on pothole damage.
A google search would help you out.

david13

I see your point, however It was either a pothole, hit by the oncoming car, or the car behind me.

Plus that pot hole has been there for at least 6 months, I remember because i changed my route in december to that road due to the snow and ice on the cycle paths, and i fancied a change of senary today, big mistake.

merkin

Ouch, you have my sympathy.
Not sure where you stand in suing the council unless you reported it when you first noticed it 6 months ago. :?

whyamihere

If you sue them, they'll have even less money to fix potholes with.

marcusjb

Plus that pot hole has been there for at least 6 months

You definitely should not admit anything like that on a public forum if you are considering taking this further - in fact, most people advise saying nothing or it will come back to bite you.

You knew the pothole was there, yet you chose to ride through it is how I believe they would see it in court.

amnezia

http://www.potholes.co.uk/claims/step_by_step_guide

Sirius631

marcusjb wrote:

Plus that pot hole has been there for at least 6 months

You definitely should not admit anything like that on a public forum if you are considering taking this further - in fact, most people advise saying nothing or it will come back to bite you.

You knew the pothole was there, yet you chose to ride through it is how I believe they would see it in court.

After six months, I think it quite reasonable to expect that it would have been tackled in the meantime. I don't think it reasonable that you remember the exact location of each pothole along a route that you haven't ridden in that time.

Specialized Needs

You may wish to check fillthathole to see whether the pothole has been reported by someone else. If it has, then that might improve your chances of claiming. This will also help to identify the responsible authority (not all roads are the local council's responsibility).

You would, of course, need to prove to a reasonable level of certainty that the damage was caused by the pothole. Take photos and record all you can (including of the pothole as it currently is - before the appropriate authority fill it).

david13

There are several potholes on that road, I only remember that one as it is bang on in line the watch for farm traffic sign.

Ive got some pics of the pothole, my injuries and the damage to the bike and my kit.

prj45

http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/e ... case-13839

The Rookie

Councils are only responsible if they can be shown to be negligent, if they didn't know about it, they could not repair it, if they knew only recently, again they may not have yet been negligent in not repairing it.

On the other hand, if they knew and did nothing for a reasonable period of time, and put no warning in place, then they may well be negligent.

Simon

Aspman77

You can do an FOI request to the council to ask when they last checked that road for holes or if the hole has been reported previously.

You can also ask for the details of their system for checking the roads. It might be unreasonable if ,for instance, they only check the road once every 10 years.

It shouldn't matter if you know about the hole or not. The hole is still a safety issue and I doubt that a court would find it reasonable for that hole to have existed for 6 months or for the Council not to have checked the road for 6 months.

Redmog

Are you in the CTC, British Cycling etc. for the insurance? if so they retain a solicitor who knows about cycling stuff and would give a proper answer!

They were very good after my last off, well worth it.

spen666

Aspman77 wrote:

You can do an FOI request to the council to ask when they last checked that road for holes or if the hole has been reported previously.

You can also ask for the details of their system for checking the roads. It might be unreasonable if ,for instance, they only check the road once every 10 years.

It shouldn't matter if you know about the hole or not. The hole is still a safety issue and I doubt that a court would find it reasonable for that hole to have existed for 6 months or for the Council not to have checked the road for 6 months.

Checking a road every 6 months is acceptable to courts- that is regarded as normal practice to meet standard of care to avoid liability

Aspman77

spen666 wrote:

Checking a road every 6 months is acceptable to courts- that is regarded as normal practice to meet standard of care to avoid liability

There you go then. It's down to them been informed but having done nothing then.