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A workmate's younger brother had a gravel front wheel washout riding across the Mendips,bike written off, one of his kneecaps was detatched.
The ambulance crew remarked that this was the third bike accident and one car leaving the road in one week, same place,same problem..
So, are the Highways Agency in some way negligent by failing to keep the road clear of debris ?
Little Luke will probably never walk properly again, or be able to ride a bike/pushbike

Oh, the silly bugger was wearing jogging pants

fatboy wrote:A workmate's younger brother had a gravel front wheel washout riding across the Mendips,bike written off, one of his kneecaps was detatched.
The ambulance crew remarked that this was the third bike accident and one car leaving the road in one week, same place,same problem..
So, are the Highways Agency in some way negligent by failing to keep the road clear of debris ?
Little Luke will probably never walk properly again, or be able to ride a bike/pushbike

Oh, the silly bugger was wearing jogging pants

Well without all the facts but based on what you have said, the answer is "Possibly"

Much would revolve around whether the council or Highways know of the problem which would require their records to be checked and also whether they had any plan of action to deal with the gravel which would be deemed reasonable.

I am happy to have a chat without obligation, get a bit more information and advise accordingly.

Thanks TC, I will have a chat with Jerry tomorrow and try to get more details, hopefully see where this is going

Recent bout of thunder storms have left gravel stream beds in all the usual and then some, places. It is what happens when large amounts of water run off the fields. Not saying its the same situation but no way the council are going to be able to keep on top of that.

I was surprised even though I knew there would be a couple of bad spots. Fortunately wasn't going fast enough for it to be a problem.

I will be honest and say that one of our local roads was recently resurfaced

I use the term resurfaced lightly - a bunch of guppies turned upand sprayed evo stick on the road and threw some grit over it....

Either way, before the warm weather I rode on it.... You could feel the top surface sliding.... I called the council and complained the sceptical erk told me they would look at it

Inside three days I had a call - surface needs redoing

HisNibbs wrote:Recent bout of thunder storms have left gravel stream beds in all the usual and then some, places. It is what happens when large amounts of water run off the fields. Not saying its the same situation but no way the council are going to be able to keep on top of that.

I was surprised even though I knew there would be a couple of bad spots. Fortunately wasn't going fast enough for it to be a problem.

Agreed - but what FB reports is that a couple of bikes and a car all crashed there recently - so perhaps the authorities might have been expected to check for any cause of the problem.
That said, that would rely on the police doing a half decent job when they attended the scene - and my recent experiences of the police would not suggest this to be a likely occurrence. No doubt sorting out anything on the road would not be "their responsibility" and the hope that these agencies may actually act in a coordinated manner and pass any info on to those who maintain roads is probably just far too much like a bit of common sense to actually happen.

D-Rider wrote:
Agreed - but what FB reports is that a couple of bikes and a car all crashed there recently - so perhaps the authorities might have been expected to check for any cause of the problem.
That said, that would rely on the police doing a half decent job when they attended the scene - and my recent experiences of the police would not suggest this to be a likely occurrence. No doubt sorting out anything on the road would not be "their responsibility" and the hope that these agencies may actually act in a coordinated manner and pass any info on to those who maintain roads is probably just far too much like a bit of common sense to actually happen.

Doesn't really matter about the Police, although them reporting a problem does help.

After every injury crash, a form called a Pink form has to be submitted to the local authority reporting anything in terms of road defects that may have been deemed a contributory factor. This can be a back up to verbal reports from either the Police or public.

But the bottom line is that the local authority and Highways have a statutory duty of care to keep the roads safe well maintained (which throws the pothole debate into context ) and if they fail to inspect and act in a reasonable time then they become liable.

Given that a number of previous crashes had occurred, then that suggests that they should have been aware of the problem, but copies of their inspection reports would need to be examined to determine if what they have done or planned to do is reasonable

T.C. wrote:
After every injury crash, a form called a Pink form has to be submitted to the local authority reporting anything in terms of road defects that may have been deemed a contributory factor.

By whom?

lazarus wrote:

T.C. wrote:
After every injury crash, a form called a Pink form has to be submitted to the local authority reporting anything in terms of road defects that may have been deemed a contributory factor.

By whom?

In the event of an injury crash the pink form is submitted by the Police as part of the reporting process where is lists those features of the road that could be deemed contributory.

But that still does not preclude members of the public reporting defects

fatboy wrote:A workmate's younger brother had a gravel front wheel washout riding across the Mendips,bike written off, one of his kneecaps was detatched.
The ambulance crew remarked that this was the third bike accident and one car leaving the road in one week, same place,same problem..
So, are the Highways Agency in some way negligent by failing to keep the road clear of debris ?
Little Luke will probably never walk properly again, or be able to ride a bike/pushbike

Oh, the silly bugger was wearing jogging pants

I have just spoken to a senior colleague on another matter and mentioned this in passing.

Given the circumstances and the previous history of this piece of road, he agreed with my comments and feels that there would actually be a very good chance of success against the local Highways.

So, having had my thoughts confirmed, if your mates brother or a member of his family want to talk to me about it without any obligation (although happy to help professionally if required) then as previously mentioned, I am happy to do so.

That sounds encouraging TC. I spoke to Jerry today (older brother), he has taken many photo's of the crash site, some ,I think show markings of Luke's mishap. Luke was being followed by another rider,statement to be had there.
The stretch of road invoved does have a 'reputation'
A little always gets lost in translation so I will get some contact details and relay them via pm
Thanks

I rode past the crash site on saturday, there was so much gravel and debris in the road it would certainly cause a problem for 4 wheels, a disaster for 2 wheels, a long arrow shape of gravel and stone,at least 2 inches deep, 3 feet wide at the widest, tapering for about 8 to 10 feet