[Closed] Pothole causes crash, claim from council?

It really depends whether or not that particular pothole has been reported before & if the council can show they regularly inspect that bit of road

Worth a go I reckon. Plenty of ambulance chasing no win/no fee types about.

First thing is to photograph the pothole - they'll fix it as soon as you report the accident now...

Then check if the hole's been there a while or if it's been reported - if it hasn't been then I don't believe that they'll be liable if it's fairly new.

This website will be helpful:
[url] http://www.fillthathole.org.uk/ [/url]

Hope she heals up soon...

First, ring the council, tell them what has happened. Do take pics of everything, injuries, damage to kit, bike etc, but the council won't be that quick to fill the hole in. Make a list of damage, get a quote for replacing from a reputable bike shop. The claim is likely to take a while, but unless there is something really dodgy about it is unlikely to be disputed. the council will talk you through the procedure.

In 1999, on the road bike I hit a ridge of tarmac that had formed right across the cycle path - basically going across a bridge the movement of that bridge had forced the tarmac up about 2-3". Not a huge lump, but just caught me when I wasn't expecting it, so I went down and slid along the tarmac for a few metres. Road rash all along my left arm, shoulder, bum, fingertips. Jersey and gloves wrecked, shifters on bike scraped, a few more small cosmetic blemishes.

The injuries mainly inconvenienced me - I missed out on a triathlon I'd been training for, had an embarrassing meeting in work (with the directors of the company) when I started leeking blood from wound on my shoulder through the dressing and shirt and had to cut short the meeting.

I reported it to Neath-Port Talbot Council, after 18 months they paid out about £1300, mainly for scarring, which I still have. It's not massively noticeable, but it's still there and it gets more obvious when I'm tanned.

Maybe I should have avoided the lump, maybe I should have just accepted it as 'one of those things', or just maybe a cycle path should be kept in good condition.

The lumps on the bridge are still there.

"It really depends whether or not that particular pothole has been reported before & if the council can show they regularly inspect that bit of road "

That's not true. They may tell you that but they are fobbing you off.

"First thing is to photograph the pothole - they'll fix it as soon as you report the accident now..."

Definitely photo it. And they may not fix it right away. I had an incident in the car. about 2 years ago now - the pothole is still there!

Anyhow, be prepared for lots of fobbing off and it will take ages. Took me about 9 months or so. Was worth it though.

The council get a fortune off tax payers, but the roads are coming apart. The only evidence of road maintenance round my way is the ocassional road being resurfaced (very very badly) or bodging pavements by sweeping a thin layer of tar over the pavement. A pavement beneath which really requires digging up and re-laying. Potholes go unattended for months. All done by expensive subcontractors who are doubtlessly bunging the right council official so they can get away with charging too much for their shoddy work!

You would have thought the council could employ a couple of their own guys fulltime, to just go round temporarily patching holes. Aparently, my council reckon it will take years to fix them all. They need to get their finger out then!

Good luck with the claim!

hope Mand's ok mate.

sue the buggers

Dunno about claiming, but there was some big potholes developing near me. Came across them on the bike the other day, so noticed them and thought that I ought to report them as they were awkwardly across a junction. Lo and behold the next day they were filled 😀 Scary thing was I had only [i]thought[/i] about reporting it. Some councils can be good...

Hope all goes well with getting things sorted.

I know this may cause an arguement!

But, my opinion on this is that yeah the council have not filled the pothole in, but 9 times out of 10 you didnt have ur full attention on the road otherwise you would have dodged it.

Yes there was damage to clothing and that but i think it would be the same as going up into the hill (scotland) and say wrecking your bike on a big rock. Would you sue the landonwer?

I hate that everything has come to sueing. People sueing all the time drives up the costs of everything. Glentress, parts of it are shut because of too many accidents. Which i think is probbaly because people are trying to sue for falling off.

Bearing in mind I am 19 and would never say no to money! I would personally just get on with it. Report to council so they can fix it but dont claim against them.

This is just my opinion before people start attacking me!

In my experience, no. Wimbledon council did a long drawn out case for me one time in 2007 and i got nothing at the end of it. Wear & tear in the road, even though i'd reported it before etc..

MS has a point, but we DO pay for the roads to be maintained. Without wishing to sound like a patronising old fart (inevitable - i'm sorry),,,30 years ago the roads were in considerably better shape - NO QUESTION! We also paid a lot less council tax relatively speaking. So why the **** should we put up with potholes? If councils spent money on roads and not stupid schemes that deliver little or no benefit to the wider community, we'd not be discussing the matter. I suspect a lot of our council tax goes directly into the council worker pensioners' bank accounts, but that's another matter.

Yep, cycnical old fart that i trully am! 😆

[i]You would have thought the council could employ a couple of their own guys fulltime, to just go round temporarily patching holes.[/i]

They won't have any money to pay them because there's "Plenty of ambulance chasing no win/no fee types about".

Thanks for the info.