7 replies to this topic

[td or sv? That is the question.]

To begin, on a point of principle, I wouldn't use a lawyer to get all litigious - if it's not religion, it's lawyers who are destroying the world we enjoy, but enough of personal philosophy.

Having recently written off my 850, which I loved, and to this day being unable to explain what happened, I put it down to experience and counted my blessings that I was wearing full leathers and that my helmet did its job. However, when I recovered the bike from the friendly local who rescued me (thanks, Richard!), he asked me whether I had made a complaint to the local council about the road surface where I had crashed. The thought had never entered my mind, until he told me that 4 bikes had crashed since me on the same 500m-odd stretch, leading council to erect defective surface signs and post a 40kmh speed limit on an otherwise empty country road. Then last week I found out a biker was killed on the same road. Apparently the road has not long been re-surfaced and is breaking up, perhaps I should add allegedly here. So I sent an innocuous email to the council, recounting events and asking for their opinion, to receive a phone call, saying that my case had been referred to their insurance claims division.

I'm not really too sure what to make of this. Has anyone found themselves in a similar situation who would care to share their experiences?

Ta thricely.

[AL-58]

To begin, on a point of principle, I wouldn't use a lawyer to get all litigious - if it's not religion, it's lawyers who are destroying the world we enjoy, but enough of personal philosophy.

Having recently written off my 850, which I loved, and to this day being unable to explain what happened, I put it down to experience and counted my blessings that I was wearing full leathers and that my helmet did its job. However, when I recovered the bike from the friendly local who rescued me (thanks, Richard!), he asked me whether I had made a complaint to the local council about the road surface where I had crashed. The thought had never entered my mind, until he told me that 4 bikes had crashed since me on the same 500m-odd stretch, leading council to erect defective surface signs and post a 40kmh speed limit on an otherwise empty country road. Then last week I found out a biker was killed on the same road. Apparently the road has not long been re-surfaced and is breaking up, perhaps I should add allegedly here. So I sent an innocuous email to the council, recounting events and asking for their opinion, to receive a phone call, saying that my case had been referred to their insurance claims division.

I'm not really too sure what to make of this. Has anyone found themselves in a similar situation who would care to share their experiences?

Ta thricely.

It has happened, I can think of two cases I know of personally.

1 a friend had a tyre blowout on his ute after hitting a raised bolt on a timber bridge, he sent the bill for the new tyre to the appropriate council with an accompanying letter and photo, they paid with little negotiation.

2 A guy on one of my clubs rides many years ago took a detour from the route we had planned and found a pile of dirt(no warning signs) across the road at speed, he wrote his Triumph off. With the bike uninsured he tried to make a claim against the council. They dragged my club into court to blame us as we were the ride organisers, the fact he deviated from the suggested route absolved us of any blame thankfully(regardless they are public roads and we shouldnt have had any part of the responsibility for that). I understand the council did have to pay up eventually as the incident was caused by their unmarked roadworks. That was before the whole HIH/public liability insurance problem.

Al

[Pict]

It has happened, I can think of two cases I know of personally.

1 a friend had a tyre blowout on his ute after hitting a raised bolt on a timber bridge, he sent the bill for the new tyre to the appropriate council with an accompanying letter and photo, they paid with little negotiation.

2 A guy on one of my clubs rides many years ago took a detour from the route we had planned and found a pile of dirt(no warning signs) across the road at speed, he wrote his Triumph off. With the bike uninsured he tried to make a claim against the council. They dragged my club into court to blame us as we were the ride organisers, the fact he deviated from the suggested route absolved us of any blame thankfully(regardless they are public roads and we shouldnt have had any part of the responsibility for that). I understand the council did have to pay up eventually as the incident was caused by their unmarked roadworks. That was before the whole HIH/public liability insurance problem.

Al

Good luck down there in Oz

Could we open this up a little to the UK? I had a near miss on the way to work recently, suddenly coming on to a resurfaced road that had been left strewn with a major excess of granite chippings - it was like riding on ballbearings even at 10 mph! No advance warning - just 20 yds in on the bend, the usual "Motorists, beware flying chips on yer paintwork" sign. To my shame, I didn't report it, though - have just been taking a different route. The main menace round here (apart from the usual crumbling, patched surfaces even on major m'ways) is where they've been laying TV cables - the standard of infill on those snaking foot-wide strips is awful.

Edited by Pict, 27 August 2006 - 01:51 am.

[Mick]

Questy,
I nearly got some money out of my local council. I caused a bit of a kerfuffle at the town hall and got a local road resurfaced.
I lost the back end when the spray seal garbage that they had coated the road with melted. It was a stinking hot day on a piece of road that did not get much traffic on it. The tyre was coated with molten bitumen and I lost control with a fairly gentle low side. dented the tank and squashed the muffler.
I wrote a couple of letters talking about substandard maintenance practices, duty of care and some fairly emotive stuff about school buses going over cliffs. I was going to follow it up with a claim for the damage to the bike but I was so pleased when they resurfaced the road properly that I thought I should not piss them off too much. I wrote them a thank you letter instead, much better for the karma than whinging all the time.

Mick from Tassie

[AL-58]

To begin, on a point of principle, I wouldn't use a lawyer to get all litigious - if it's not religion, it's lawyers who are destroying the world we enjoy, but enough of personal philosophy.

Having recently written off my 850, which I loved, and to this day being unable to explain what happened, I put it down to experience and counted my blessings that I was wearing full leathers and that my helmet did its job. However, when I recovered the bike from the friendly local who rescued me (thanks, Richard!), he asked me whether I had made a complaint to the local council about the road surface where I had crashed. The thought had never entered my mind, until he told me that 4 bikes had crashed since me on the same 500m-odd stretch, leading council to erect defective surface signs and post a 40kmh speed limit on an otherwise empty country road. Then last week I found out a biker was killed on the same road. Apparently the road has not long been re-surfaced and is breaking up, perhaps I should add allegedly here. So I sent an innocuous email to the council, recounting events and asking for their opinion, to receive a phone call, saying that my case had been referred to their insurance claims division.

I'm not really too sure what to make of this. Has anyone found themselves in a similar situation who would care to share their experiences?

Ta thricely.

These might be of interest to you:
http://www.roadsafet...org.au/a/9.html
http://www.mccofnsw.org.au/a/141.html

Al

Edited by AL-58, 28 August 2006 - 04:56 am.

[Big Bird]

I heard a story of a car driver successfully getting money from a council (think it was down Picton way) for
1. leaving gravel on a corner where they'd been doing roadworks, and
2. not erecting adequate warning signs.

Nowadays councils still leave deep gravel on corners and have (more or less) permanent signs up to cover their arse.

Good luck

[ROB1]

from my experience here in the UK with local councils is that they will eventually cough up some dough with a lot of negotiation/nagging/crying etc.nearly tirty years ago a mate in the twilight hit a mound of earth left at road works,it launched him like a motox jump he landed sliding under a car.the firebrigadr had to cut him loose.mangled his left leg.I was the only witness.lots of visits to his solicitor the council eventually coughed up in an out of court settlement.the 5k he got has long gone but the limp is for life

[jiff]

..................for what it's worth , about ten years ago I suffered a wrecked front alloy wheel on my car - caused by a nine inch deep trough left unfilled by a road repair crew............Hackney Council (not exactly legendary for the logic or consistency of their approach) paid up without a squeek..............so I guess it's just a matter of what posture is assumed by the bureaucrat-du-jour.............give it a go!............G