Does "Barry Knows Best?"

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/10/25/solicitor-left–paralysed-in-cycling-accident-sues-79-mountain-b/

Hope he took out good insurance! Difficult to tell from a typical Torygraph article but could of just been one of those accidents that happen or the instructor got bored – who knows? Will no doubt depend on collaborative evidence from other parties on the course.

The accident victim believed he had been instructed ‘to descend the gully at speed and without braking’, the court heard.

Hmmm 😕

I get he may have significant costs now hes paralysed and i do sympathise as it must be a terrible situation but it just sounds like an unfortunate accident to me

Instructor says he rode the wrong line twice, crashing on 2nd attempt so 1) he was clearly able w ride it, 2)the instructor could’ve done a better job of stopping him making the same mistake.

Seems like the instructors team name when racing was prophetic!

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The “notorious Holmbury Hill”!

Sympathies to the guy injured but really the reporting is ridiculous – what is HH notorious for? Dogging? The gully on BKB?? I assume it was the drop near the top which was a little rougher 4 years ago than it is now, but not a gully.

Sad story all round. No winners likely either.

These kinds of things are really about securing long term medical support for someone who is now unable to carry out all the thing they used to be able to do.

Mr Ahmed, a mountain biker of 12 years’ experience

his front wheel suddenly jammed on “what looked like a clumpy, grassy piece of ground”

Hmmm, what terrain exactly had Mr Ahmed being riding when “mountain biking” for 12 years?

These kinds of things are really about securing long term medical support for someone who is now unable to carry out all the thing they used to be able to do.

Fair enough if the instructor was culpable but all this does is increase the cost of biking for the rest of us. The guy admits to not being adventurous, he was not forced to ride the line twice, anyway lets see how it plays out.

Rights or wrongs not withstanding – his barrister needs to make up his mind…

“A novice rider

, or;

He had been riding a mountain bike for several years

And

Although experienced in cycling and mountain biking

, or;

he was a novice to “rough terrain” and “descents”.

Something not adding up…

Fair enough if the instructor was culpable but all this does is increase the cost of biking for the rest of us.

Well, increase the cost of professional liability insurance for MTB instructors. The impact on the cost of biking is not going to be significant.

I’ve ridden the wrong line twice many times – target fixation usually. Can be hard to fix so I have some sympathy.

Mad. I feel sorry for the guy, but you’ve got to take responsibility for your own actions.

Jamj, I read that as “he’s had a bike in the shed for 12 years, and had ridden it a few times around the park and then decided to give it another go. ”

I read that as “he’s had a bike in the shed for 12 years, and had ridden it a few times around the park and then decided to give it another go.

That actually sounds like quite a lot of riders around Surrey Hills on a weekend 😆

I have a huge amount of sympathy for him having been injured – but get the party line straight.

Yes, agreed CFH.

Mad. I feel sorry for the guy, but you’ve got to take responsibility for your own actions.

This.

Not knowing the ins and outs (or care to guess either way) but the instructor insurance is there exactly for such outcomes.

Why else would you have liability insurance? Ergo the bloke isn’t in the wrong, is the lads insurer trying to lessen a payout though and ‘why’?

That I don’t agree with. He paid decent money for a service, a level of risk but also protection. The instructor can’t watch and micro manage every rider so he must take a portion of the blame. For £80 on a ‘new rider course’ I’d expect 1-2-1.

For £80 on a ‘new rider course’ I’d expect 1-2-1.

On a 121 basis you wouldn’t get much of a decent instructors time.

It’s tricky, obviously the instructor has to minimise risks as much as possible bit there’s no way to totally remove the chance of injury. While Barry’s isn’t exactly tricky a beginner could easily have a crash on it, equally they could trip over in the car park.

I can’t help think this is the incident that happened well I guess 4 years ago where the rumour was that some guy had come off Barry’s on the bomb hole and broke his neck… ever since then the bombshell was ‘softened’ out a bit.

Rather unfortunate and sad for both parties.

The reporting though leaves much to be desired.

No sympathy with the injured solicitor at all, scumbag chancer. Much sympathy with the poor instructor.

Insurance isn’t just there for anyone who has an accident. There has to be culpability. I feel for the bloke, but he’s been riding mountain bikes for 12 years, there is always a personal responsibility for ones actions. Considering his frankly f***ing seriously impressive qualifications, he will always be earning a very good living. He may struggle to justify that £10m claim.

No sympathy with the injured solicitor at all

He’ll never walk again. C’mon now.

We don’t know do we – the instructor may be the chancer? Like the one I saw on the top of Grizedale with a bunch of school kids during very cold n wet weather, the kids had no waterproofs FFS! Gives us all a bad name!

he wont walk again due to an injury when someone was instructing him to do something. I doubt he broke his neck as part of his scumbag chancer routine

I am sure the instructor has suffered also but i bet he rides a bike and his suffering was somewhat less life changing than the solicitors

I pray your post was a troll – save me the denial.

No sympathy with the injured solicitor at all, scumbag chancer.

Classy

My cousin was paralysed in a MTB accident and ended up at Dignitas. So while I don’t agree with what the injured party is doing here, I also think that certain comments ^’ are badly misguided. That’s the polite version.

I have to say I agree, you’re ultimately responsible for yourself, and have to act intelligently…

Analogy, it’s quite possible you could go on a ski holiday, play a game of rugby, or any kind of sporty endeavour and end up with a broken neck, ok the instructor/guide has some responsibility not to take you out of your league, but then you have a responsibility not to blindly follow instructions if you are not sure of yourself.

Yes it’s possible the instuctor had poor judgment, but you’d think the instructee would have said,you know what, this is a bit crazy, and find a new instructor.

Very unfortunate for all, but realistically you could fall of a bike at any time and do yourself a grave/serious injury.

As a mincing newbie, I went on an improvers weekend on the same ground a few years ago. My worst fall was practising cornering on a flat fire road. But more relevant, the instructor was deliberately pushing me beyond my comfort zone eg, the steep drops on Leith to the LHS of the v top section of Summer Lightening and (I did say I was mincing at the time) the bomb hole in Evian ( 😳 ).

If he hadn’t pushed me, I would have got little out of the course. So no easy answer IMO.

A good coach will push you beyond your comfort zone but not beyond your level of skill.

The guy admits to not being adventurous, he was not forced to ride the line twice, anyway lets see how it plays out.

That’s called ‘sessioning’ a section, it’s how you teach people and correct their mistakes when coaching a rider.

Terrible for the solicitor, hard to call for the instructor without knowing the guy or the descent they were doing, but it doesn’t seem likely he was in the wrong.

On actually reading the article, it does seem like rider error, we all do stupid school boy errors, it’s just most times we get away with some cuts and bruises.

experienced in cycling and mountain biking, he was a novice to “rough terrain”

So, not experienced?

Thanks for clearing that up.

Are we sure it’s not just the solicitors insurers suing the guides?

It may be he had no choice but to pursue it to get money from his own insurers.

There’s some fairly judgemental comments above, I hope if I was in a wheelchair I’d get some sympathy and not just called a scumbag based on a poor newspaper report.

I’m not sure it falls under ‘chancing’. If he felt hurried, pressed or pressured. Some might word that as encouraged and ‘taken out of comfort zone’?

No winners in this and insurance should protect those if it’s proven there’s a legitimate basis.

It may be he had no choice but to pursue it to get money from his own insurers.

Indeed, that’s usually how these things work.

The courts will decide if anyone was at fault, but perhaps this case will mean that instructors have to increase their levels of insurance? Feel bad for both parties, there is never a winner in these things.

How much liability insurance do independent MTB instructors generally carry ?

£10 million

Blimey