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Council admits liability after beastly pothole hospitalises cyclist

David Armstrong hospitalised for a month after near-fatal crash

A cyclist who spent seven hours on the operating table after hitting a pothole says he is "angry" that the local council responsible for the road didn't repair it despite being notified a year earlier that the crack was potentially lethal.

"All the pain I was going through could have been avoided for a few pence of tarmac," said David Armstrong.

Bradford Council has admitted liability after Armstrong took legal action, and is looking to assist with his rehabilitation.

Armstrong, 66 caught his front wheel in a deep crack on Bradford Road, Shipley, known among local riders as “the beast” because of its depth and danger.

In the ensuing crash he shattered his pelvis, had a collapsed lung, broke his back, three ribs and his collarbone.

The damage was so bad that at one point doctors feared the married grandfather might not survive. Even when he was out of danger, it was not certain he would ever walk again.

A retired civil servant from Shipley, Armstrong had been a top-ranked fell runner as well as a bike rider. He underwent a seven hour operation to fuse his pelvis and was hospitalized for a month.

He later learned that the hazard had been reported to Bradford Metropolitan District Council 12 months before his crash on September 7, 2013, by another rider, via the CTC’s “Fill that Hole” system that notifies councils of potholes.

In the report that rider noted: “This is potentially lethal and needs very urgent attention”.

Armstrong says he hopes his incident will serve as a wake-up call to local authorities to take prompt action to improve safety for vulnerable road users.

He said: “It made me feel so angry when I found out the council was aware of this hazard. The fact that all the pain I was going through could have been avoided for a few pence of tarmac is infuriating.

“My incident is a good illustration of just how we need a bit of joined up thinking between authorities so they realise that saving a few pounds here and there might mean huge financial consequences later.

“Councils are not looking at the whole costs, the costs to the NHS for treatment, for example. There needs to be more effort to make the roads safer and prevent these sorts of incidents.”

Mr Armstrong - an experienced cyclist and runner, who has climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, ridden from London to Paris and run the Grand Canyon rim to rim in his 60s – was returning from a training ride when hit the pothole just as the road narrows.

Describing the injuries, he said: “It was absolutely awful. It still upsets me to think back to it. There were times when I was told it was touch and go whether I’d survive the injuries. I’ve got a vivid recollection of waking up in hospital with a nurse shouting at me to breathe.

“This incident has had an enormous impact on me and my family. I had been a competitive runner and cyclist and winner of age-related prizes for fell racing up until this crash. I valued my health a great deal and this incident has had a devastating affect.

“The dependency was something that I found very difficult to cope with. Having been so fit then having to be so reliant on others – particularly my wife – for absolutely everything was terrible – especially after being so fit and active.

“After the operation, it was by no means a certainty that I’d walk again – it depended on how the recovery went. The most upsetting thing for me was I was told beyond any doubt that I’d never run or cycle again. Both of those had been such an important part of my life.

“I was absolutely determined to exceed predictions. It was six months before I wasn’t reliant on a Zimmer frame to get around. I think the doctors have been surprised by how much mobility I’ve been able to regain. I’ve been able to get back on my bike which has been such a relief.

“But it’s been an incredibly tough effort to go through the rehabilitation process. My wife Dot has been an incredible support.”

A spokesman from the CTC said: “The terrible injuries suffered by the cyclist in this case could have been avoided had the council acted on the report made a year earlier.

“Council negligence is not acceptable, particularly when detailed information has been submitted about a road hazard. CTC strongly encourages everyone to report potholes and other road defects to their council via our Fill that Hole website, which has received over 91,000 reports since it was launched in 2007, but these reports are futile if councils do not act on them swiftly as they are duty-bound to do.”

Bradford Council may have chosen not to take this case all the way to court as a result of a decision in a similar case earlier this year.

In March, Alan Curtis was awarded £70,000 by the High Court for a crash in 2009 that left him with impaired hearing and suffering from short-term memory loss. He also fractured his skull, suffering brain injuries, and broke his arm in the crash.

As in this case, Curtis had hit a crack that ran along the length of the road, a type of surface damage that might not have been high on the council's priorities as it has little effect on cars.

Mr Armstrong’s lawyer Jonathan Reid, of Slater & Gordon, said: “What is particularly disturbing about this case is that the council was well aware of the danger this pothole posed – more than a year before this crash. The fact that another rider had highlighted this danger, through the CTC’s campaign site ‘Fill that Hole’, has been crucial in this case.

“This campaign is an excellent means for riders to give local authorities adequate warning of dangers. It is important they act on those warnings.

“The council owes a duty of care, not just to motorists, but especially vulnerable road users, such as cyclists and pedestrians.”

John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.

He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.

Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.

John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.

He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.

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18 comments

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Dnnnnnn | 9 years ago
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FTH seems to vary in effectiveness by council, and by type of road but more often than not something gets done in my experience. Often the repairs, as stated elsewhere, are very poor but it's a matter of seconds to re-report them.

Some of the reports I see on FTH aren't great - the location is poorly marked/described (good to mention something visibly adjacent as the flag marker isn't very good) and/or the description is sensationalised. You can see why councils might discredit them - but don't stop reporting, just do it well.

The fact that FTH only "91,000 reports since it was launched in 2007" is surprising - I think I must be responsible for about 1% alone!

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2_Wheeled_Wolf | 9 years ago
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I've reported potholes via councils own website & CTC Fill that Hole Site & it makes no difference. Took over 3yrs to fix Chapel Road in Colchester after being in papers, multiple reports, petitions, councillors complaining & still not got done til August this yr. They werent potholes, they were trenches over 1ft wide, almost as deep & easily 30ft long each. If you didnt go around them you couldnt go over them thus get stuck in the door zone of parked cars. I hated that road, preferred alternate route than use it.

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Wrongfoot | 9 years ago
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Don't row about it guys. Notify the council and fill that hole together, with modern technology you can cut and paste so it takes seconds. Voila! A direct report and a public record too...

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workhard | 9 years ago
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If the hole is not a hazard to cars it will not attract a level of priority. More or less verbatim what my local Highways Authority have told me twice in the last year. In our club it is known as the "fuck off pleb" response, their standard response to cyclists.

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mrmo replied to workhard | 9 years ago
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workhard wrote:

If the hole is not a hazard to cars it will not attract a level of priority. More or less verbatim what my local Highways Authority have told me twice in the last year. In our club it is known as the "fuck off pleb" response, their standard response to cyclists.

Then maybe the solution is to with hold council tax, after all it exists to provide services such as roads, if the council refuses to provide the services why pay? .....

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SideBurn | 9 years ago
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Whenever I have used fill that hole the hole has been filled immediately, maybe because I was careful to get the location correct?
But around here the general attitude is to put up traffic lights or a sign when the road falls to bits. One set of traffic lights has been there so long that earlier this year they put up another sign to say that work will start mid 2014.... In other news the council has spent £2M creating three lanes approaching a roundabout instead of two. Meaning that cars can ignore the lanes and drive around the roundabout even faster; hooray!
I cannot wait for the temporary signs to go up, again, warning about ice on the road, it is much cheaper to do this than clear the drains of mud.

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spen | 9 years ago
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You also have to remember tat councils are under no obligation to check FTH. The only way to be sure they get your report is to tell them directly.

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SlowCoach replied to spen | 9 years ago
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spen wrote:

You also have to remember tat councils are under no obligation to check FTH. The only way to be sure they get your report is to tell them directly.

Councils don't have to check the FTH site. The reports are sent direct to them (via email I think). What the council has to do is to check the inbox of their advertised email address.

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Metaphor | 9 years ago
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The priority of councils in West Yorkshire? Taxis.

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Metaphor | 9 years ago
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Are you sure 'Fill that hole' really gets the hole filled? Better off e-mailing your local highways department directly with details of the pothole (including photo and nearest lamp post number reference).

Remain courteous, and don't flood them with more than one a week and in general they seem happy to work with you.

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Guyz2010 replied to Metaphor | 9 years ago
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Ramuz wrote:

Are you sure 'Fill that hole' really gets the hole filled? Better off e-mailing your local highways department directly with details of the pothole (including photo and nearest lamp post number reference).

Remain courteous, and don't flood them with more than one a week and in general they seem happy to work with you.

Agreed but only reporting 1 a weeks means 52 a year. Hardly enough given the complete lack of Government and Council funding for roads. The road I live on is only 100meters long and has about 30 areas requiring repairs. That would take seven months to report them all!

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Redvee | 9 years ago
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There are a couple of smaller chasms I encounter on my commute and have reported them and nothing has been done, yet other, less dangerous I reported at the same time have been dealt with. One crevice is on a roundabout and means I have to take the wrong line to safely use the roundabout.
One local council responded via Twitter that unless a pothole is considered dangerous it won't get repaired.

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Airzound | 9 years ago
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I hope the fuckers at this Council are sued for tens even hundreds of thousands of £££££££ as their negligence is breath taking. Thinking they can compromise on their duties to maintain a safe road surface is shocking. They are so negligent some one at this council should face a criminal prosecution. What if anything are the CPS or the HSE going to do about it?

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mrmo | 9 years ago
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well i reported a similar crack to Gloucester County Council a year ago and shockingly enough nothing has been done!

What will it take to make councils realise that what is a minor issue for a car can be potentially fatal?

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spen | 9 years ago
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Hope Mr Armstrong's recover continues a pace.

"He later learned that the hazard had been reported to Bradford Metropolitan District Council 12 months before his crash on September 7, 2013, by another rider, via the CTC’s “Fill that Hole” system that notifies councils of potholes."

I've doubted the effectiveness of these reporting websites for a while. East Lothian (IIRC) council no longer accept reports from fill that hole as the found they were wasting too much time trying to track down the holes due to the poor standard of some of the reports. It appears that Bradford hasn't responded to a single report since March 2012. (Is this the same problem http://www.fillthathole.org.uk/hazard/21954 ?

If you see a hole report it directly to the authority, it's the only way to be sure the council is aware of the problem

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downfader replied to spen | 9 years ago
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spen wrote:

Hope Mr Armstrong's recover continues a pace.

"He later learned that the hazard had been reported to Bradford Metropolitan District Council 12 months before his crash on September 7, 2013, by another rider, via the CTC’s “Fill that Hole” system that notifies councils of potholes."

I've doubted the effectiveness of these reporting websites for a while. East Lothian (IIRC) council no longer accept reports from fill that hole as the found they were wasting too much time trying to track down the holes due to the poor standard of some of the reports. It appears that Bradford hasn't responded to a single report since March 2012. (Is this the same problem http://www.fillthathole.org.uk/hazard/21954 ?

If you see a hole report it directly to the authority, it's the only way to be sure the council is aware of the problem

What the FTH site does do iirc is to record the GPS of the location, and you can also tag in photos.

Going online and filling in the local council's own webforms is OK but they do not allow this data. I have had poor success with my own local authority webforms in this manner. Most do not get filled. I gave up a couple of years ago tbh (unless they were REALLY bad) - I must have reported over 300 in about 2 years...

..and when they were filled its as if the contractor has simply foot stamped macadam in there. That never lasts.

Where success has happened however has been down to the work of local Councillors and residents fighting for full resurfacing. About 4 major routes have been fixed this way in the past year in Southampton

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SlowCoach replied to spen | 9 years ago
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spen wrote:

If you see a hole report it directly to the authority, it's the only way to be sure the council is aware of the problem

Sorry, but the best way to get these holes filled is to use Fill That Hole. I reported the same hole 3 times through the council's direct reporting system and nothing happened. They denied that it has ever been previously reported on the 2nd and 3rd occasions. When I reported it through Fill That Hole it was repaired within a week. The advantage of public reporting systems is that there is a very public record that the council has been told . It can't be denied.
If someone hadn't previously reported this particular pothole using Fill That Hole, but had used the council reporting site instead the subsequent claim would not have been successful as the initial report would not have been public knowledge.
I believe that my council takes much more notice of the CTC reports than it does it's own reporting system simply because the public system holds them more accountable.

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230548 replied to spen | 9 years ago
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Yes reporting directly seems more effective, as long as you can give fairly accurate directions, I have reported several on our councils website and they actioned them within two weeks, I usually state they are potentially lethal for cyclists (which they are) the site is a bit clunky to use but it works.

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