I came off my bike on overbanding…

A couple of months back I was riding my bike along a wet road to work and was going around a bend when my bike lost grip and I ended up coming off. I was not too badly hurt and inspected the road and it looked like it had been recently repaired. The seal at the edge of the repair looked a lot wider than normal – about 4 inches wide. I was off work for a bit and lost pay and am considering if I can claim for my injuries and the damage to the bike/gear?

Mike, Milton Keynes

Answer

Depending on the type of road, the local council or the Highway Authority are 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 is 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.