Pothole - Liability

DirkVoodoo

Well, not really a pothole. It's a recessed drain cover, but it sits very far below the road level. What's worse, the street lighting is insufficient and obscured by trees, so you go from good road visibility to know visibility.

I had the misfortune of hitting it last night.

https://www.google.ie/maps/@53.2901896,-6.1927097,3a,24y,57.41h,66.86t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sghdwWUa5KC_0uXCGcoQRsg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

I spent about 10 minutes looking for my rear light that had come apart in the impact. My front tyre blew out once I hit the drain, it was a proper thud! It was a good thing I didn't come off, the tyre blew out and anyone who knows the road knows that it's a fast downhill section. I had to come to a halt gradually at the roundabout.



Inspecting the rim this evening, I see that it's now badly dented. Brand new bike and all. Ordinarily, I wouldn't do anything about this, but seeing as this seems to be poor design (massively recessed drain) and maintenance (street lights rendered useless from tree growth), is there any policy in place to make a complaint to the council?

I'm not looking for €25k for a few minutes in a lift, just to get the rim repaired.

Or am I wasting my time?

rollingscone

Local authorities have special status under the local authorities act afaik.

You would need to be able to prove that they had been aware of the issue and not acted to rectify it.

I suppose you could make a data access request for €6.35 to see if anyone else had made a complaint about the surface and what if any action was taken to rectify it.

robyntmorton

You can try filing a complaint with roads in DLRCC, as it is their area of responsibility, detailing where, when, conditions, damage caused, and what you want out of it (e.g. rim/light etc.)

They may totally ignore you, they may say it is not their fault, that it has to be a faulty repair within x years of date and so on, or they may say it is easier to take care of it.

It is difficult to say what the outcome will be one way or another, but give it a go. If you are resident within the county boundary, CC'ing a couple of your local councillors may be beneficial too. You elected them, so you may as well put them to work.

DirkVoodoo

Well, I have discs so I can still ride on it, I found the light and the two AAA batteries (with my front light, demonstrating it was adequate!)

I suppose long term this goes beyond my own repair, it's a dangerous section of road!

Even the cycle lane is dangerous: it suffers from the same lighting problem and if you look at the map I linked to, the entrance to the lane is hilariously bad, you have to go against traffic exiting the minor road to enter it. And I can tell you for a fact that people rarely slow down coming from the minor road, so you're risking a nasty T-bone!

ford2600

They resurfaced road and didn't bother lifting street furniture.

Their out in terms of liability is where they have done nothing and a road breaks up; this is different it was substandard resurfacing work.

Could have been worse, be glad grate slots wasn't set at 180 degrees to road!!!! More common than you'd imagine.

robyntmorton

Even if it does inspire roads to go out and inspect the road, it has to be a good thing. Then they can see that there is a serious issue with it.

With regards the damage though, if I remember rightly, when we as a society started to become so litigious, there was a rule brought in that says that the council can't be held at fault for every crack in every footpath, which is just wear and tear. They are however, at fault if a repair wasn't up to standard and failed before it could be called wear and tear.

I am not a lawyer though, and this is not legal advice (I have to say this, or Boards will give out to me)

Hopefully something will come of it for you, even if it is just a bit of tree cutting and some tarmac.

Steve

AFAIK, if it was a previously repaired defect and the repair failed, they are liable, otherwise forget it.

This is just their policy tho, nothing to say you can't have your day in court against them but it would cost more than you would get.

Kat1170

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

Well, not really a pothole. It's a recessed drain cover, but it sits very far below the road level. What's worse, the street lighting is insufficient and obscured by trees, so you go from good road visibility to know visibility.

I had the misfortune of hitting it last night.


I spent about 10 minutes looking for my rear light that had come apart in the impact. My front tyre blew out once I hit the drain, it was a proper thud! It was a good thing I didn't come off, the tyre blew out and anyone who knows the road knows that it's a fast downhill section. I had to come to a halt gradually at the roundabout.



Inspecting the rim this evening, I see that it's now badly dented. Brand new bike and all. Ordinarily, I wouldn't do anything about this, but seeing as this seems to be poor design (massively recessed drain) and maintenance (street lights rendered useless from tree growth), is there any policy in place to make a complaint to the council?

I'm not looking for €25k for a few minutes in a lift, just to get the rim repaired.

Or am I wasting my time?

Contact the Council, what have you got to loose, also the bolded parts, don't point out you were going 'fast' in a badly lit area or they will deffo' say it was your own fault