Crash caused by object in the road
Hello. I was coming into Birmingham on my Fazer in the summer and entered a roundabout and everything was fine. Then suddenly I spotted a bucket in the road right in front of me. I swerved to avoid it but came off and broke my wrist and thumb. A witness took a photo of the bucket and gave it to the police. It had the name of a building firm on it. My lawyer wrote to the building firm and we have heard from their insurance company who say that its not their fault and they have no idea how the bucket was there but it wasn’t left by them. I think this is very unlikely but we are a bit stuck as to the next thing to do. Should I take them to court like my solicitor says? What if it wasn’t them to blame?
Sudir Khan, Birmingham
Answer
You should get your solicitor to get disclosure of documents from the building firm confirming where they were working on the day in question. If they had a job which involved them using the roundabout you came off on, then a court will likely find that on the balance of probabilities it was left by them, for example having come off the back of a works tipper or something.
If they were nowhere near the vicinity then the court is likely to accept that someone else deposited the bucket which may have been picked up by other tradesman on a joint venture. I would get the disclosure before deciding on next steps. As a backstop you should get a claim submitted to the Motor Insurers’ Bureau in case it turns out the road user responsible remains untraced and then they should compensate you in the event you fail against the builders.
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