Advice pse on damage due to road surfsce



P

Pinky

Guest
I was out today on a regular route that I use( only a couple of miles from
home) when I hit a "pothole" in the road and ruined the rim of the rear
wheel of my nearly new velo. I had to walk it home!

Now, this is a road which I cycle on several times each week since it is so
close to home, but I haven't hit this "hole" previously. Indeed I wouldn't
have hit it today excepting I was being passed by 2 or 3 cars at the time
and didn't have the room to manoeuvre round it -- and I was travelling at
about 25 mph on the beginning of a down hill bit.which probably explains why
it happened.

So, although I am fully insured, should I approach the local authority
responsible and ask about the dreaded "compensation"?

I have never made such an approach in my life but one hears so much these
days about people claiming over trips on a pavement and so on.

I am also very much aware about a deterioration in road surfaces locally (
there has been a local authority reduction in expenditure in road
maintenance for a few years now and it shows -- it seems to be a policy of
patch and fill).

So should I approach them and ask them to pay up -- or is it just too much
hassle!

Views please!

Trevor A Panther
In South Yorkshire,
England, United Kingdom.
www.tapan.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk
 
On Sun, Pinky <[email protected]> wrote:

> So, although I am fully insured, should I approach the local authority
> responsible and ask about the dreaded "compensation"?
>
> I have never made such an approach in my life but one hears so much these
> days about people claiming over trips on a pavement and so on.

I did similar on my commute once. I didn't 'ask' them, so much as
phone them up and tell them I would be claiming. I subsequently
supplied a photograph of the pothole, a copy of the receipt for new
rim, and a letter 'requesting' (in a polite-but-no-debate-about-it
sort of tone) payment.

This had two beneficial effects:

1: Pothole was filled within 8 hrs (I hit it cycling home,
photographed it next am cycling to work, telephoned council about
10am, it was filled in by the time I cycled home).

2: A cheque for the cost of the rim appeared.

> Views please!

Tbh, effect 1 was the most beneficial effect. If it takes threats
about money to trigger immediate-filling-in I'm all for making threats
about money.

regards, Ian SMith
--
|\ /| no .sig
|o o|
|/ \|
 
> I am also very much aware about a deterioration in road surfaces locally (
> there has been a local authority reduction in expenditure in road
> maintenance for a few years now and it shows -- it seems to be a policy
of
> patch and fill).
>
> So should I approach them and ask them to pay up -- or is it just too much
> hassle!
>
> Views please!
>
If you have a camera, you should take a photograph of the pot hole as
evidence to be submitted with your claim. From previous postings, possibly
here, you could be in for a protracted battle to part the council from its
money.

A claim through the small claims court might work and might be worth
investigating - there is a minimum value for the claim and I'm not sure what
it is. It's cheaper for the council to settle out of court than to be
represented to defend the against the claim.

Good luck.
 
In article <b%[email protected]>, Pinky
<[email protected]> wrote:
> So, although I am fully insured, should I approach the local
> authority responsible and ask about the dreaded "compensation"?

> I have never made such an approach in my life but one hears so much
> these days about people claiming over trips on a pavement and so on.

If you approach them in a reasonable manner and don't demand too much
you will normally be OK - works with our LA - where I claim for a few
new wheels each year due to potholes.

--
A T (Sandy) Morton
on the Bicycle Island
In the Global Village
http://www.millport.net
 
Pinky <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> I am also very much aware about a deterioration in road surfaces locally (
> there has been a local authority reduction in expenditure in road
> maintenance for a few years now and it shows -- it seems to be a policy of
> patch and fill).
>
> So should I approach them and ask them to pay up -- or is it just too much
> hassle!
>

My wife ruined a car tyre on a pothole; the council had a barrier
around it by the next day and paid the cost of the replacement
tyre with very little argument. Photos were taken but weren't needed.

-adrian
 
in message <b%[email protected]>, Pinky
('[email protected]') wrote:

> I was out today on a regular route that I use( only a couple of miles
> from
> home) when I hit a "pothole" in the road and ruined the rim of the
> rear wheel of my nearly new velo. I had to walk it home!

I'm going to be unsympathetic, I'm afraid.

In Britain we've come to expect unrealistic standards of road surface
quality. The roads budget takes a huge share of local authority finance
which would be better spent on social services and education. If you
pumped your tyres up hard enough and rode more carefully (and possibly
used more appropriate tyres, I can't say) it wouldn't happen.

--
[email protected] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

The trouble with Simon is that he only opens his mouth to change feet.
;; of me, by a 'friend'
 
Simon Brooke wrote:
> in message <b%[email protected]>, Pinky
> ('[email protected]') wrote:
>
>> I was out today on a regular route that I use( only a couple of miles
>> from
>> home) when I hit a "pothole" in the road and ruined the rim of the
>> rear wheel of my nearly new velo. I had to walk it home!
>
> I'm going to be unsympathetic, I'm afraid.
>
> In Britain we've come to expect unrealistic standards of road surface
> quality. The roads budget takes a huge share of local authority
> finance which would be better spent on social services and education.
> If you pumped your tyres up hard enough and rode more carefully (and
> possibly used more appropriate tyres, I can't say) it wouldn't happen.

Up to a point. As he said, he would have swerved, but there was overtaking
traffic, which suggests it's on roads that are heavily trafficked and where
it's thus reasonable to expect them to be well surfaced.

Having suffered with a pothole at a pinchpoint on a route that I used daily
(along with many many cars and maybe one or two other cyclists), I'm less
sympathetic to believing that it's an imposition on the council to make
roads work. They tend to work where the houses are expensive, I've found.

--
Ambrose
 
"Simon Brooke" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
<snip><snip>
>
> I'm going to be unsympathetic, I'm afraid.
>
> In Britain we've come to expect unrealistic standards of road surface
> quality. The roads budget takes a huge share of local authority finance
> which would be better spent on social services and education. If you
> pumped your tyres up hard enough and rode more carefully (and possibly
> used more appropriate tyres, I can't say) it wouldn't happen.
>
> --
> [email protected] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/
>
> The trouble with Simon is that he only opens his mouth to change
> feet.
> ;; of me, by a 'friend'
>

Purely in response to your, not unwelcome, comments.
My tyres were inflated to recommended pressures and were checked the
previous day.. They are also virtually brand new and as supplied. And I ride
carefully at nearly all times ( don't we all!), having cycled some 10,000
miles in the last 2 years. There are, of course, occasions which external
forces come into play as they did at this time.

In the very brief time that I had to change direction having seen the
"hazard" I was already aware of the cars that were in the process of
overtaking me. I was well positioned in the carriageway being at about 1/3
of the width.

I have probably cycled on this section of road several hundred times ( or
more) -- perhaps familiarity breeds contempt!

The reason I posed the enquiry was that I have always maintained and paid
for all damage to my bike myself as a matter of course. I have also had my
bikes insured ( but have never claimed for "minor" damage). But both as a
cyclist ( most of the time) and a motorist ( for about 1/3 of the bike
mileage) I have been very aware of a quite considerable deterioration in the
quality of road surfaces in recent years . There has been a very apparent
"fill in holes policy" for a number of years and the post winter period,
after hard frosts, always open up weaknesses created by that policy. Now, if
I am aware of bad road surfaces when driving my car I am even more aware of
them when riding my bike!

So although I know where most of the bad patches are
........but...............I don't see every metre of any road on which I
cycle. And if I were a stranger ..............!

I take a very different view to your main comment when I know that
expenditure on road maintenance has been put on a "back burner" for several
years.
(By the way on this same section of road , about 400 metres earlier there
had been a deeply sunken manhole cover in the main carriageway which I had
asked to be rectified about for over a year before it was finally repaired.)

I am aware the no authority can be expected to know of every hole and bit
of damage on any section of road. But that does not absolve them from
responsibility. In this event I controlled my bike , in traffic, when the
road surface caused me to suffer damage to my bike,immediately altering its
stability which could have put me in danger from the passing cars.
Trevor A Panther
In South Yorkshire,
England, United Kingdom.
www.tapan.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk
 
Simon Brooke wrote:

> I'm going to be unsympathetic, I'm afraid.
>
> In Britain we've come to expect unrealistic standards of road surface
> quality. The roads budget takes a huge share of local authority
> finance which would be better spent on social services and education.
> If you pumped your tyres up hard enough and rode more carefully (and
> possibly used more appropriate tyres, I can't say) it wouldn't happen.

Some holes and bumps will throw the rider off the bike, let alone damage a
wheel. The worst in London are bad enough to make me feel sick just to
look at! I should claim compensation for physcological damage :)
Seriously, it is fair that councils compensate victims when they don't
inspect and fix the roads properly. It's at least as important as
education, IMO.

High air pressure will prevent a tyre compressing all the way to the rim,
whatever you hit, but that's not the only bad thing that can happen to
rims, wheels, bike and rider, and not everyone wants their tyres that hard
anyway.

Of course you should ride carefully but still I think the roads should be
in a decent state in case you're human and fail to spot one of every five
hundred potholes you come across, and unfortunate enough for one of those
one day to be bad enough to damage your bike/self. They are not all easy
to see, and it is easy to be distracted (by others doing wrong, for
example).

After all, road signs, street furniture and junctions have to be easy to
see. It wouldn't be acceptable for the odd random one to be practically
invisible whilst driving at a reasonable speed. Cycling at 5 mph and
continuously staring at every inch of the surface is the only way to
guarantee you'd *never* run into a pothole. As that's not reasonable,
let's have the roads maintained properly, please. The claims for
compensation should encourage the authorities to get on with it.

~PB
 
In message <b%[email protected]>, Pinky
<[email protected]> writes
>I was out today on a regular route that I use( only a couple of miles from
>home) when I hit a "pothole" in the road and ruined the rim of the rear
>wheel of my nearly new velo. I had to walk it home!

>So should I approach them and ask them to pay up -- or is it just too much
>hassle!

You may find the response varies from Local Authority to LA. In my case
I hit a drain gully that had eroded into the road surface. They (Glos)
said that they had a duty of care but could not be expected to know of
all potholes in all roads and were unaware of this one. In the end they
relented and paid for the cost of a new wheel, but it took about 4
months of negotiations to get there (and indeed, in the end, they still
did not admit liability).

During this time I discovered that the following always resulted in a
damaged section of the road being repaired:

Note the location of the hazard, photograph it and then send the details
to the LA Highways Dept. Inform them that they have now been notified
and they would be held liable for any damage sustained by a member of
the public. I also added that I would post a notice adjacent to the
pothole informing members of the public that the LA were aware of the
damage but had done nothing to remedy it.

Within 3-4 days the pothole would be filled.

Best of luck,
--
Chris
 
Chris Fox wrote:
> In message <b%[email protected]>, Pinky
> <[email protected]> writes
> >I was out today on a regular route that I use( only a couple of miles from
> >home) when I hit a "pothole" in the road and ruined the rim of the rear
> >wheel of my nearly new velo. I had to walk it home!

> During this time I discovered that the following always resulted in a
> damaged section of the road being repaired:

This is a touch OT but anyway -

They recently redid the lights at the junction just outside my house
(and added ASLs). The junction has pedestrian controlled lights and is
a key point in the access to the local schools - there is a crossing
warden. The lights have been fitted with pedestrian sensors to avoid
having to hold up the cars for too long [1]. These sometimes fail to
register a pedestrian is still there and cancel the push button,
usually just before the pedestrian phase, so you have to wait a full
cycle again. We have complained a few times, once to someone actually
working on them, and a few days ago my wife managed to get the direct
number of the chap who is responsible for fixing them.

So, a notice will shortly be appearing on the crossings - "If this
pedestrian crossing isn't working properly, don't just moan at your
friends but tell the man who can fix it by calling 01382 xxxxxx"

Laminated and cable tied to the posts. It seems that the locals are
really good at moaning amongst themselves but quite apathetic about
doing anything productive to resolve the issues.

...d
 
Pinky wrote:
> I was out today on a regular route that I use( only a couple of miles from
> home) when I hit a "pothole" in the road and ruined the rim of the rear
> wheel of my nearly new velo. I had to walk it home!

Learn to bunnyhop! It's easy on clipless pedals (just yank up with feet and
arms) and also easier at decent speed.

Arthur

--
Arthur Clune
 
Arthur Clune wrote:
> Pinky wrote:
>> I was out today on a regular route that I use( only a couple of miles from
>> home) when I hit a "pothole" in the road and ruined the rim of the rear
>> wheel of my nearly new velo. I had to walk it home!
>
> Learn to bunnyhop! It's easy on clipless pedals (just yank up with feet and
> arms) and also easier at decent speed.
>


What ever you do report the hole to the local council. For the two
counties I cycle in regularly you can report them online and while the
web interfaces suck to some degree they usually also result in action.
Just in case they don't I also blog the fact that I reported it so it is
harder for them to deny.

Both sites, hampshire and Surrey are listed here:

<URL:http://del.icio.us/cgerhard/pothole%2Buk>


--chris
 
On Mon, 27 Mar 2006 00:21:07 +0100, Simon Brooke <[email protected]> wrote:

>in message <b%[email protected]>, Pinky
>('[email protected]') wrote:
>
>> I was out today on a regular route that I use( only a couple of miles
>> from
>> home) when I hit a "pothole" in the road and ruined the rim of the
>> rear wheel of my nearly new velo. I had to walk it home!
>
>I'm going to be unsympathetic, I'm afraid.
>
>In Britain we've come to expect unrealistic standards of road surface
>quality. The roads budget takes a huge share of local authority finance
>which would be better spent on social services and education. If you
>pumped your tyres up hard enough and rode more carefully (and possibly
>used more appropriate tyres, I can't say) it wouldn't happen.


I'm astounded that anyone, particularly a cyclist, would post anything so
utterly ridiculous.

There are occasions where it is impossible to manouver around a pothole because
of traffic, and a badly damaged wheel could easily mean that you lose control of
the bike, and end up under a passing lorry.

Similarly, there are occasions when it is not possible to see a pothole, or how
bad it is, until there is no chance to avoid it.

You are taking the "blame the victim" mentality to a whole new level with your
attempt to excuse the council from maintaining roads to a state where they are
not a potential death threat to cyclists.

> The trouble with Simon is that he only opens his mouth to change feet.
> ;; of me, by a 'friend'

Obviously a very perceptive friend.
 
Arthur Clune wrote:
> Pinky wrote:
>> I was out today on a regular route that I use( only a couple of miles from
>> home) when I hit a "pothole" in the road and ruined the rim of the rear
>> wheel of my nearly new velo. I had to walk it home!
>
> Learn to bunnyhop! It's easy on clipless pedals (just yank up with feet and
> arms) and also easier at decent speed.
>

Somewhat harder (and impressive) for our 'bent colleagues ;-)


--
Tony

"The best way I know of to win an argument is to start by being in the
right."
- Lord Hailsham
 
Graham wrote:
>
>>
>> In Britain we've come to expect unrealistic standards of road
>> surface quality. The roads budget takes a huge share of local
>> authority finance which would be better spent on social services
>> and education. If you pumped your tyres up hard enough and rode
>> more carefully (and possibly used more appropriate tyres, I can't
>> say) it wouldn't happen.
>
>
> I'm astounded that anyone, particularly a cyclist, would post
> anything so utterly ridiculous.
>

He probably builds trails for Sustrans ;-)

--
Tony

"The best way I know of to win an argument is to start by being in the
right."
- Lord Hailsham
 
"Pinky" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:b%[email protected]...
>I was out today on a regular route that I use( only a couple of miles from
>home) when I hit a "pothole" in the road and ruined the rim of the rear
>wheel of my nearly new velo. I had to walk it home!

Bum.

Around here (Northants) the County Council will pay up if they knew about
the pothole but will argue like crazy if they didn't.

They inspect their roads once a year or so -- and repair them once a leap
century.

Therefore, if smashing a wheel it is advisable to get a mate to report the
pothole before you report your accident -- and be somewhat inaccurate about
the exact date of the incident.

T
 
"Simon Brooke" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> in message <b%[email protected]>, Pinky
> ('[email protected]') wrote:
>
>> I was out today on a regular route that I use( only a couple of miles
>> from
>> home) when I hit a "pothole" in the road and ruined the rim of the
>> rear wheel of my nearly new velo. I had to walk it home!
>
> I'm going to be unsympathetic, I'm afraid.
>
> In Britain we've come to expect unrealistic standards of road surface
> quality. The roads budget takes a huge share of local authority finance
> which would be better spent on social services and education. If you
> pumped your tyres up hard enough and rode more carefully (and possibly
> used more appropriate tyres, I can't say) it wouldn't happen.
>
> --
> [email protected] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/
>
> The trouble with Simon is that he only opens his mouth to change
> feet.
> ;; of me, by a 'friend'
>
There is a legal obligation on the Highway Authority to maintain the highway
in a safe and serviceable state.
Annual survey published a few days ago said that outstanding repairs are the
greatest ever?
The lack of maintenance has reached the stage where larger and larger
amounts of the budget are going on compensation, therefore further
exacerbating lack of money for maintenance.

A problem for as long as I've been involved is to 'coat' a failed road
surface to hide the defects.
If the road has failed then this treatment won't last very long and the
money is wasted.
It's done to try and satisfy as many people as possible.

Paul.
 
Chris Fox wrote:
> In message <b%[email protected]>, Pinky
> <[email protected]> writes
>> I was out today on a regular route that I use( only a couple of miles
>> from
>> home) when I hit a "pothole" in the road and ruined the rim of the rear
>> wheel of my nearly new velo. I had to walk it home!
>
>> So should I approach them and ask them to pay up -- or is it just too
>> much
>> hassle!
>
> You may find the response varies from Local Authority to LA. In my case
> I hit a drain gully that had eroded into the road surface. They (Glos)
> said that they had a duty of care but could not be expected to know of
> all potholes in all roads and were unaware of this one. In the end they
> relented and paid for the cost of a new wheel, but it took about 4
> months of negotiations to get there (and indeed, in the end, they still
> did not admit liability).

Councils will almost never admit liability for anything which might
result in further claims. They are instructed not to do so by their
insurers. The insurers' instinct (and practice)is to deny any liability
from the start and only pay up when it looks like they would lose in
legal proceedings. Even then, payment is usually made "without prejudice".

--
Brian G
 
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