Pothole accident

CASEsensitive

I was cycling into work today, hit a pothole, (on Dame street just beside the traffic lights across from Georges street) went over the front of the handle bars but was very lucky. I have two serious deep gashes and a lot of grazing and whatnot. I went to the doctor and got patched up, and they wrote a report. Now i took a picture of the pothole and it looks like it has been repaired. Since, my front tyre on my bike is buckled, and i dont know if i will have to replace the forks yet, what do i do next? Do I put it down to cycling in the city, fill out one of those pothole reports and leave it at that, or is it worth taking a small claims action. Not that i expecting to get a big check, but it annoyed and scared me, and maybe the council paying out would be the only satisfaction I would get, seen as there are a lot of potholes out there with very little been done about them. Just wondering did anyone else do anything after coming off their bike.

Drapper

ahhh the joys of cycling! I'd suggest you pick yourself up and get back on the saddle and forget about it !! NO ROADS are perfect!! deal with it......

Raam

I hate cycling around town, some of the roads are like off-road tracks, except worse. Heading out of town along North Strand is truly awful.

Sorry to hear of your accident

wahlrab

the west side of phibsboro of the north circular is awful too as is any road i suppose in town,

i think you should definitely complain to the council write a few letters to newspapers ruffle a few feathers

bother the council enough and they'll give you a job as a civil servant to shut you up:
civil servants: too many, jobs too secure and too good a pension

milod

CASEsensitive wrote:

I was cycling into work today, hit a pothole, (on Dame street just beside the traffic lights across from Georges street) went over the front of the handle bars but was very lucky. I have two serious deep gashes and a lot of grazing and whatnot. I went to the doctor and got patched up, and they wrote a report. Now i took a picture of the pothole and it looks like it has been repaired. Since, my front tyre on my bike is buckled, and i dont know if i will have to replace the forks yet, what do i do next? Do I put it down to cycling in the city, fill out one of those pothole reports and leave it at that, or is it worth taking a small claims action. Not that i expecting to get a big check, but it annoyed and scared me, and maybe the council paying out would be the only satisfaction I would get, seen as there are a lot of potholes out there with very little been done about them. Just wondering did anyone else do anything after coming off their bike.

Go for it! sue the b'stards - I used to take Drapper's approach, but a hit and run last year left me with a fractured shoulder and a bad attitude... (I caught the stupid cnut though - managed to get the reg number).

It's a war out there - the enemy are motorists and DCC who are responsible for the dire state of the roads and the pathetic fifty yard long cycle lanes scattered about the city.

Drapper

milod wrote:

Go for it! sue the b'stards - I used to take Drapper's approach, but a hit and run last year left me with a fractured shoulder and a bad attitude... (I caught the stupid cnut though - managed to get the reg number).

It's a war out there - the enemy are motorists and DCC who are responsible for the dire state of the roads and the pathetic fifty yard long cycle lanes scattered about the city.

fractured sholder I take the same route as you milod, but potholes I'm not sure!

robfitz

CASEsensitive wrote:

I was cycling into work today, hit a pothole

That sucks.

Make a complaint about the pothole to Dublin City Council.

Also you should come along to the next meeting (Aug 14th) of Dublin Cycling Campaign. The very poor standard of road reinstatement's is one of the issues we are discussing with the council and evidence of accidents will be useful.

daymobrew

Dublin City Council has a Central Claims Unit to deal with accidents.

CASEsensitive wrote:

seen as there are a lot of potholes out there with very little been done about them.

Do you report potholes to the local authority? The road maintenance people cannot be everywhere but if we report problems then we can complain if they choose not to fix them.
I have the phone numbers of the various maintenace depots in my Palm PDA. Calling the depot is the fastest way to get something small done.

With regards to your accident, I would be mad as hell, but let me play devil's advocate with two questions: Was it a big pothole? How did you not see it?

CASEsensitive

Right, I rang the pothole repair people in the council, he said he'd pass the information on (i.e. it will still be there next year). I took a picture of the pothole which I hope shows up, its not that large I have seen bigger, http://img453.imageshack.us/img453/4237/cimg4541re8.jpg.As for seeing the pothole, I did see it but there's not much I could do about it, I slowed down, are you suggesting pulling into traffic to avoid all potholes. I didn't think I'd fall off, and i guess thats what scared me, that if there'd been a bus or truck directly beside me I would have been a goner. As I said I'm not looking for a compensation package, but in my opinion, which was reinforced after my conversation with the maintenance division, is that for the road to be repaired, monetary compensation or solicitors would have to be involved. What do the central claims unit do?, they don't even have a phone number.

daymobrew

CASEsensitive wrote:

Right, I rang the pothole repair people in the council, he said he'd pass the information on (i.e. it will still be there next year).

Sometimes they need to be hounded.
The DCC website lists contact numbers for Road Maintenance.

CASEsensitive wrote:

As for seeing the pothole, I did see it but there's not much I could do about it, I slowed down, are you suggesting pulling into traffic to avoid all potholes.

I suggest stopping. Then either progress over the pothole slowly or wait until it is safe to go around it. I regularly do the latter on Clonliffe Road (I'm paranoid wrt to safety).
It sounded like you evaluated what you saw, figured you'd make it across the pothole but it turned out to be considerably worse than you thought.

CASEsensitive wrote:

What do the central claims unit do?, they don't even have a phone number.

Ring the main DCC number: 222-2222.

Drapper

daymonbrew hit the nail on the head!

Explosive_Cornflake

CASEsensitive wrote:

As for seeing the pothole, I did see it but there's not much I could do about it, I slowed down, are you suggesting pulling into traffic to avoid all potholes. I didn't think I'd fall off, and i guess thats what scared me, that if there'd been a bus or truck directly beside me I would have been a goner.

Lift your front wheel going over it. The back wheel will land in it, and you may get a puncture/buckle, but you elimante all chances of doing an endo.

robfitz

CASEsensitive wrote:

http://img453.imageshack.us/img453/4237/cimg4541re8.jpg

Can you take a few more photos, show the full street, view from the direction you were traveling, low angle view showing the depth of the hole, etc. That picture has no context, the pothole could be anywhere.

To me the picture shows a pothole which doesn't seem to have been formed due to a recent road opening, though I seem to remember the parts of road being resurface in recent years.

The pothole seems to have just been filled with a few spades of tarmac (at least once). This wasn't an adequate repair. All the damaged tarmac should have been cut way, the hole dug out, filled with compacted hardcore, a good layer of new tarmac, and tar around the edges.

Personal I would say that you have case, if the pothole had been repaired correctly you would not have had your accident.

dermot_sheehan

I've damaged a couple of front wheels through potholes. The problem is you can only sue a public authority if the pothole arose because of maintenance work and they failed to repair it properly, you can't sue if the pothole arises due to an act of nature (i.e. rain) and they fail to fill it in. In any case getting a spoke on a bike fixed doesn't cost that much and i consider it normal wear and tear on the bike.

ciaranr

gabhain7 wrote:

I've damaged a couple of front wheels through potholes....and i consider it normal wear and tear on the bike.

Exactly gabhain, I agree with you, it is an unavoidable cost. But I do think when you actually injure yourself through a fall it's something different. I'd get together a nice folder of bills (Medical and bike repair) and hassle an impressionable young civil servant at DCC, I'm sure such a creature would not be hard to find! They will all eventually crack under the strain, believe brother!

But on a practical note, lift the front wheel just enough to hop over it and stand up while the back tracks over the gap, always works for me with no adverse effects on man or machine.

Sorry again to OP, bit of an unfortunate situation which is happening cyclists far too often in this ****ty little country.

robfitz

I was on Dame Street last Friday night and saw the pothole(s) that caused your accident, they already been filled in with a few more spades of tarmac. I wouldn't have called that an appropriate repair for a pothhole that caused a cycling accident. I'm very disappointed with the council.

cyclopath2001

robfitz wrote:

I'm very disappointed with the council.

The workmen are following what the City Council calls 'best practice'.

It's the Council's unwritten standard for everything.

robfitz

cyclopath2001 wrote:

The workmen are following what the City Council calls 'best practice'.

It's the Council's unwritten standard for everything.

Looks like one set of rules for the council and another for everbody else.


Directions for the Control & Management of Roadworks in Dublin City
http://www.dublincity.ie/Images/roadworks_control2005_tcm35-19614.pdf

Directions for Roadworks Control
http://www.dlrcoco.ie/FORMS/RDWKSCON05.HTM
http://www.dlrcoco.ie/FORMS/ROADOPENING2006.PDF

Guidelines for the Opening, Backfilling & Reinstatement of Trenches in Public Roads (2002)
(Not available for download)
http://www.environ.ie/DOEI/doeipub.nsf/wvInfoView/3E95229839DA219680256F0F003DB97B?OpenDocument&Lang=en

cyclopath2001

Those rules are not enforced & of course 'guidelines' are not legally binding.

Do you know if City Council 'Best Practice' for cycle facilities is documented? (Not the DTO one, the secret version they actually use.)