I came off after road repairs

A few weeks ago I was riding my bike along a wet/damp road returning from work. My bike lost traction as I went around a bend, and I came off. I had some injuries, but thankfully they were not significant.

Once I managed to compose myself, I inspected the road surface for clues as to what happened and it looked fairly recently repaired. The seal at the edge of the repair looked a lot wider than normal, being about 10cm wide. I was off work for 2 weeks and didn’t get paid. Can I claim for my injuries and the damage to the bike, clothes and lost income?

Josh G, Havant

Answer

Depending on the type of road, the local council or the Highway Authority will be responsible for maintaining the road surface and all repairs. Authorities often contract this work out but the contractors have a duty to make sure the road repairs comply with statutory requirements and repair guidelines.

The seal around a repair is known as “overbanding” and it’s known to be a potential accident risk to motorcyclists because it can cause loss of traction.  If wider than 20mm, then the material used for the overbanding is supposed to have a grit like substance added to provide adequate wet skidding resistance, and it should never be more than 40mm wide or 3mm thick.

If you can prove that the overbanding did not comply with the requirements then it would likely be considered a hazard and you should be able to bring a claim against either the authority or the contractors for misfeasance and/or negligence.