Fractured right knee & partially torn (grade II) right shoulder AC joint ligaments.

prophet01

Last Friday morning I had need to take the train to work rather than drive and decided to cycle to the station; a route I’d never ridden before. Within touching distance of the station I commmenced, at speed (being 5:40 in the morning and completely void of vehicles in either direction), to diagonally cross the six lane London Road only to find myself crashing heavily onto the wet tarmac half way across.

I'd ridden at speed into an obstruction in the road. That obstruction being a longitudinal single run of black, rubber kerbing solidly fixed onto the tarmac surface splitting the carriageway in half.



In the darkness and the rain the rubber kerbing, being only 5 inches wide, 4 inches high and black was, effectively, invisible against the road surface.




In absolute agony I picked up my bike and limped onto the opposite footway desperatley struggling to get the chain back onto the ring so as to not miss the train. I attempted to continue the ride to the station but quickly realised, due to the pain, that serious damage had been done so I turned around and got myself home. I called a taxi to A & E where I was given morphine, X-rayed, and diagnosed with the injuries described in the thread title.

Needless to say that I'll be seeking answers from the local authority surrounding how such an inappropriate, sub-standard and irregular installation could have been even considered by professional highway engineers let alone approved and carried forward to construction.

I'd be interested to hear others' views.

monkimark

That's a strange arrangement. I can't really see what they're trying to achieve with the rubber kerb - I guess maybe preventing u-turns. It certainly seems like they could easilly forsee it being a hazard when it was installed.

Where is the road?

Longshot

Wow. Even in the daylight shot that's not obvious.

Good speed in your recovery.

wolfsbane2k

Urgh, I wish you a rapid recovery!

That looks very poor - no retroreflectives, no fog line. Ask for the stage 1, 2, and 3 road safety audits from the relevant highways teams via FOI.

Tashman

Ouch, get well and take it easy.
My shoulder is still giving me grief from an off at the end of July. Hopefully you're doing something about it rather than ignoring it as I did for 12 weeks

cruff

That's poor... And sucks. However, I must point out that cutting diagonally across six live traffic lanes (even though they're empty) would probably invalidate any claim you had against the LA responsible for the stealth installation. You never know though, the fact that the white paint on it doesn't appear to be reflective might make it deficient by design.

Heal up soon!

webboo

I would suspect that as it a raised curb, that it might be designed so you can’t turn across it. A bit like trying to ride/ drive across a traffic island.
Have you checked that there’s no signs indicating no turning or u turns.

prophet01

Thanks all for your expressions of sympathy, most heartwarming.

If you'll excuse the pun I'd like to state that this topic is right up my street as it so happens that I'm a consultant highway engineer and have been for over 35 years.

In that time I've worked for many local authorities' engineering departments designing and constructing both rural and urban highway improvement schemes. In fact I'm working for one right now. I suppose I could be classed as a bit of an expert.

prophet01

monkimark said:

That's a strange arrangement. I can't really see what they're trying to achieve with the rubber kerb - I guess maybe preventing u-turns. It certainly seems like they could easilly forsee it being a hazard when it was installed.

Where is the road?

Strange arrangement indeed monkimark. A Wholly irregular and non-standard installation. In fact I've never, ever seen or heard of its like in the UK.

Here's the location
London Road, Nottingham

prophet01

wolfsbane2k said:

Urgh, I wish you a rapid recovery!

That looks very poor - no retroreflectives, no fog line. Ask for the stage 1, 2, and 3 road safety audits from the relevant highways teams via FOI.

Absolutely poor although there are retroreflective strips which do absolutely sweet f/a to highlight the profile. Indeed, in the dark they appear as a thin road marking on the road surface.


I assume by "fog line" you mean edge of carriageway line. That would improve matters.

I will, at the right time, ask whether or not RSAs were commissioned although I doubt they were. If they had then this wouldn't have been installed unless the recommendations were ignored.

prophet01

Tashman said:

Ouch, get well and take it easy.
My shoulder is still giving me grief from an off at the end of July. Hopefully you're doing something about it rather than ignoring it as I did for 12 weeks

I've my first appointment at the fracture clinic for my knee later this morning followed by physio appointment for the shoulder.

prophet01

cruff said:

That's poor... And sucks. However, I must point out that cutting diagonally across six live traffic lanes (even though they're empty) would probably invalidate any claim you had against the LA responsible for the stealth installation. You never know though, the fact that the white paint on it doesn't appear to be reflective might make it deficient by design.

Heal up soon!

I don't believe I did anything illegal or wrong in simply attempting to safely cycle across an urban road. There appears to be nothing to prohibit such a manoeuvre; it's neither a one-way road nor a dual carriageway.

prophet01

webboo said:

I would suspect that as it a raised curb, that it might be designed so you can’t turn across it. A bit like trying to ride/ drive across a traffic island.
Have you checked that there’s no signs indicating no turning or u turns.

I also suspect that the "designer's" intention was to prevent vehicles crossing the centre line of the single carriageway; from either direction. However this is a wholly inappropriate method of doing so. If that was the intention then a recognisable central reservation should have been installed as was partially there prior to this installation as the below image demonstrates.



Yes I've cheked. There is no indication to road users of any prohibition to crossing the center line from either direction.

As far as I can see there is nothing to prohibit vehicles from simply bumping over the rubber kerb. I consider it to be an illegal obstruction in the public highway.

thistle_

prophet01 said:

I will, at the right time, ask whether or not RSAs were commissioned although I doubt they were. If they had then this wouldn't have been installed unless the recommendations were ignored.

Ask now, at least thenthey might realise there's an issue and at least put sign up warning others.

There's a good chance the RSA was done, and "didn't identify any issues". That's the response I've had the last time I've queried dodgy designs. I take that as meaning "we never thought about cyclists".

Odd question, but presumably there's a road on the right going to the station that you were trying to turn into?

Wishing you a speedy recovery.

prophet01

An RSA is a highly defined procedure undertaken by a team of trained, experienced and qualified professionals. In my view it's highly unlikely that an RSA wouldn't identify any issues with this particular installation.

Yes there is a road on the right going to the station that I intended to turn into but I'm incertain of the relevance of the question. Even if there wasn't this has no bearing on the issue at hand. I, or any other vulnerable road user e.g. motorcyclist, might simply have wished to undertake a U-turn which would have resulted in the same outcome.

As I said earlier there appears to be no indication of any prohibition to the crossing of the centre line of the carriageway by road users.