pothole accident

trex

Esteemed Pedelecer
May 15, 2011
7,703
2,671
the problem is, he hit an object which could not be called a pot hole. In order to be successful, he has to prove that the object caused the accident rather than his losing control of the bike while braking sharply. I appreciate that the gas cover does not offer any friction and his tyres may have slipped over it, I am not convinced that the lack of friction could be proven a liability. Then there is a question of who owns the object.
 
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selrahc1992

Esteemed Pedelecer
Dec 10, 2014
559
218
Truth in that Tom, cwah saying he was riding fast. As soon as we move outside of cycling into motorcycling territory, our risks increase exponentially.

Two million motorcyclists produce around 400 deaths annually, four million cyclists about 100 deaths annually, the former 8 times the latter's rate. It's reasonable to presume that the incidence of accidents and serious injury is similary affected.
.
yes, there's an exponential quality to increased speed - i bent a wheel a week after installing a kit on my roadbike and so doing on average 25mph on teh lkevel instead of 20mph or so at which i easilly dodged potholes. But it must be said, english roads are atrociously potholed..
 
the problem is, he hit an object which could not be called a pot hole. In order to be successful, he has to prove that the object caused the accident rather than his losing control of the bike while braking sharply. I appreciate that the gas cover does not offer any friction and his tyres may have slipped over it, I am not convinced that the lack of friction could be proved a liability. Then there is a question of ownership of the object.
this is true... otherwise EVERYONE who slips whilst riding over the tramlines in Manchester would be sueing. This happens a lot, and its just one of the hazards of riding along.
 

SteveRuss

Esteemed Pedelecer
Feb 12, 2015
566
265
57
Bristol, Uk
We all know what the roads are like here. Crap.

The biggest issue when i'm cycling is the condition of the roads in the gutters or closer to the side of the road. I'm constantly having to sway out to avoid the worst of it which often pisses off drivers trying to overtake and greatly increases my chances of getting squished.
 
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SRS

Esteemed Pedelecer
Nov 30, 2012
847
347
South Coast
Cwah, I wish you a quick recovery. Count your self lucky a truck was not following.

Your type of accident is common and a good reason for all riders not to carry hard or sharp objects about your person.
I hope you reconsider your idea of batteries about your person.
 

Nealh

Esteemed Pedelecer
Aug 7, 2014
20,917
8,533
61
West Sx RH
Chances of Cwah getting any compo out of the council may be next to zero as stated he says a pot hole caused the accident as it happens it was a piece of iron work for which the liability may well lie with a utilities company

Time to cool it a bit Cwah and slow down on the busy pot holed roads.
Hope you are back in the saddle soon and take care and hope you feel better soon., that's 2 members recently who have had a tumble make that 3 if you count EPJ's mud bath.
 

cwah

Esteemed Pedelecer
Jun 3, 2011
3,048
179
www.whatonlondon.co.uk
Thanks for your kinds (and some not so kind) word.

I realised this may not look like a danger om the street but on my road bike I'm managing these sewer holes daily and they are super dangerous on road bike. They are slippy and can make big bump at 25mph.

This time the fast braking of the motorbike had make me brake fast and crash on this hole. I'm considering stopping road bike as it is really dangerous without suspensions. i don't know how many londoner on road bike are managing that...


On my way to the hospital, in the ambulance they told me I was the 3rd cyclist having accident the same day. 1 had his leg crushed by a lorry, another got hit by a bus and me.... london does seem really dangerous... i see why so many motorcycle have camera on their helmet, i should do the same...


I contacted a sollicitor and I have to send him picture tonight of all my proof and injuries.... thanks for making me aware to claim it as manufacturing defect. It's really really dangerous and so many times on the road I had big hit from these badly designed sewer holes.

Fingers crossed and hopefully I'd be able to get help from my sollicitor claiming they only charge if I win the case.....
 
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jwm

Pedelecer
Feb 11, 2014
139
41
Hampshire
check the council in questions website, they normally have a one page form, I believe in most(?) cases you have a 50% success rate.

John
 

Hobbehod

Finding my (electric) wheels
Mar 8, 2015
19
2
Sorry to hear about your accident and bad run of luck.

That gas thing does seem to be standing proud of the road surface and depending on the regs you may have a good case. However, I think people sometimes go to law too quickly in these matters. I pursued a council for compensation last year (nothing to do with cycling) and nearly went with a 'no win no fee' lawyer when the council didn't want to know. The lawyer wanted 35% of any compensation which I thought was too much when he was only going to write letters to try to shake the compensation out of them. Had he been unsuccessful he could then have walked away but still expected his 35% if I was successful later on. Instead, I sought help from my MP who wrote a brief letter to the Chief Executive. The Chief Executive asked the council solicitors to investigate and they sided with me and offered more than I wanted! It just goes to show that organisations will do the right thing if pushed the right way and sending no win no fee lawyers after them can cost you.

To be honest I kept after the council because I knew I was right. Given what has been said about the legality of you bike I might have just been glad to have got away with the accident.
 
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cwah

Esteemed Pedelecer
Jun 3, 2011
3,048
179
www.whatonlondon.co.uk
Sorry to hear about your accident and bad run of luck.

That gas thing does seem to be standing proud of the road surface and depending on the regs you may have a good case. However, I think people sometimes go to law too quickly in these matters. I pursued a council for compensation last year (nothing to do with cycling) and nearly went with a 'no win no fee' lawyer when the council didn't want to know. The lawyer wanted 35% of any compensation which I thought was too much when he was only going to write letters to try to shake the compensation out of them. Had he been unsuccessful he could then have walked away but still expected his 35% if I was successful later on. Instead, I sought help from my MP who wrote a brief letter to the Chief Executive. The Chief Executive asked the council solicitors to investigate and they sided with me and offered more than I wanted! It just goes to show that organisations will do the right thing if pushed the right way and sending no win no fee lawyers after them can cost you.

To be honest I kept after the council because I knew I was right. Given what has been said about the legality of you bike I might have just been glad to have got away with the accident.
how was managed the investigation? Was it straightforward or did they send inspector, etc?
 

SteveRuss

Esteemed Pedelecer
Feb 12, 2015
566
265
57
Bristol, Uk
they are super dangerous on road bike. They are slippy and can make big bump at 25mph.
My route in to town from where I live is down a lengthy slope, towards the main station in Bristol.

I can quite honestly roll down there at around 28mph with no pedalling at all. To be fair, it scares the life out of me at times, and i'm pretty hard to scare in general..

Maybe that's the main reason I haven't tried to Dongle my bike to override the imposed pedelec's legal limit as I may become too used to riding 25mph on some flatter roads, (the temptation is still there so...).

The 15.5mph limit is a mothering experience I get cheesed off with sometimes but I'm kind of happily living with the 17mph cut off I get from the Kalkhoff. I think 20mph would be my ideal cut off.
 
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Hobbehod

Finding my (electric) wheels
Mar 8, 2015
19
2
I can't tell you about any investigation as I was making a separate point about 'no win no fee' lawyers. I would have thought that if the ironwork protudes above the road surface by more than it should you are well on the way to winning your case but I have no expertise in these matters. You could try some research by sitting down with Mr Google.

I can say that your lawyer only agreed to take on your case because he thought he could win. That should give you cause for some optimism.
 
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C

Cyclezee

Guest
Hi cwah,

Just read this thread, really sorry to hear about your accident:(

Hopefully your luck will change soon;)
 
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