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news
Pothole (copyright Simon MacMichael).jpgCycling UK: Pothole lawsuits costing councils almost £9 million a year
Cycling UK says that local authorities across the UK are spending almost £9 million a year on compensation and legal fees relating to cases arising from potholes, with cases brought by cyclists costing more to settle than those involving motorists due to the likelihood they will have involved personal injury.
The national cyclists’ charity said that in total, local authorities responding to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request had spent £43.3 million in settling cases brought by cyclists and motorists in the past five years.
It highlights that the amount – which does not include time spent by council staff on dealing with claims – is equivalent to around 17 per cent of the government’s £250 million Pothole Action Fund, announced in April 2015 and covering a five-year period.
But with replies received from 156 of the 212 highways authorities asked to provide information, meaning that around one in four did not respond, the actual amount of money paid out in the five years from 2013-17 is likely to be much higher than the headline figure.
According to Cycling UK, key findings include:
Authorities on average incurred costs of £277,707.44
670 cyclists and 30,893 drivers had their claims accepted
Motorists received on average £841.26 per successful claim
Cyclists received on average £10,963.15 per successful claim
£9,980,158.74 was spent on legal costs.
Cycling UK said that the fact cases brought by cyclists resulted in compensation 13 times higher than those initiated by motorists was evidence they are more likely to involve personal injury rather than just damage to property.
It added that with the Department for Transport (DfT) that road traffic incidents involving personal injury costing an average of £15,951 once NHS costs, police involvement and time off work is taken into account, the total cost of pothole claims over the five-year period could be £10.7 million higher, totalling £54 million.
The charity also revealed the results of a questionnaire completed by 5,000 cyclists as a result of a joint investigation it conducted with Cycling Weekly and BBC Radio 5 Live and which were featured by the broadcaster today on the programme 5 Live Investigates.
The survey found that only a little more than one in three cyclists – 36 per cent – who had been injured after a crash due to a pothole had contacted the council afterwards, with the majority highlighting the difficulty of making a complaint.
Half of the respondents had hit a pothole, with 54 per cent of them sustaining slight injuries and 8 per cent being seriously injured.
Sam Jones, senior campaigns officer at the charity, commented: “Cycling UK’s research reveals only a glimpse of pothole Britain’s human cost.
“It’s clear more people are being killed and seriously injured while out cycling each year due to years of persistent under investment in our rotting local road networks.
“The government should concentrate on fixing the roads we have first before building new ones.
“Councils need provide enough funding to adopt long-term plans for roads maintenance, rather than pursuing a policy of patching up streets only as they become dangerous.
"With the government looking to encourage more and safer cycling, then the UK’s road surfaces need to be safe enough for people to cycle on," he added.
Full details of FOI responses received are available here.
Cycling UK, which runs the Fill that Hole website and app which allows people to easily notify local authorities of road defects that need fixing, said that it had not yet received responses to its FOI requests from Transport Scotland, Transport Wales or Northern Ireland’s Department for Infrastructure Roads.
Road casualty figures from the Department for Transport, summarised by Cycling UK in the table below, show that since 2007 almost 400 cyclists have been killed or seriously injured as a result of poor or defective road surfaces.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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10 comments
Pothole repairs? Huh, in our area it looks like a new firm is making a fortune, pothole repairs by 'Splodge and Bodge', nearly as dangerous as the potholes themselves.
"Authorities on average incurred costs of £277,707.44"
I'd like to see a punitive figure rather higher than that, to act as a real incentive to sort the roads out. Given the current climate of austerity, there'll be council bean counters looking at that as a figure that compares favourably against the cost of actually maintaining roads properly.
They're not going to find the funds unless they have to. Report those potholes, folks: https://www.fillthathole.org.uk/
VED is up to a £1000 for heavy goods vehicles and £1430 if with trailer.
they should be paying at least £2500/£3600.
https://www.bettertransport.org.uk/new-research-britain’s-lorries-receiving-£5bn-annual-subsidy
Apparently train companies are subsidies to the tune of £4billion.
That puts the £8billion we pay in to the EU in to context and makes the amount spent on cycling infrastructure look pathetic.
Agree. The axle weight is huge and it doesn't take many HGVs bouncing over a loose drain cover, crack or pothole to cause them to grow significantly in a very short space of time.
In rural counties like ours the big, heavy tractors etc that are often used nowadays are too wide for the lanes, cutting up the verges and spilling extra mud onto the road. This exposes the edge of the road to wear from water, frost and impact damage by subsequent vehicles.
And it's easy to ignore the damage caused to signs, bridge parapets, walls, hedges and many other roadside objects caused by vehicles (including flail hedge-trimmers).
Damage to the road surface is proportionate to the 4th power of the vehicle's axle weight. That would mean if a cyclist with bicycle weighed 100kg and paid £1 toward road repairs, a 1 tonne vehicle would need to contribute £10,000 while a 40 tonne, 5 axled articulated lorry would pay over £655 million. Puts the 'road tax' argument into perspective.
And I paid £190 for a 1440kg vehicle that did a maximum of 3000 miles annually in the last 10 years, given some fleet managers are reporting that just 'local' work they are attaining 80-120,000km/year the amount of pollution and damage done by vehicles comparatively is undercharged by a massive amount. This is why VED should always go on the fuel, wether that be petrochemical, gas or electric. Yes, Electric vehicles should not be exempt, they pollute too, check the UK daily production of electricty and see how much fossil fuel is being burned to give extremelt cheap or oft free electricity to aid the motor industry shift overtly expensive EVs and push the pollution elsewhere whilst still clogging up the roads and killing people.
The roads are constrcuted so poorly these days and I'm sure I read one engineer saying they sacrificed weather resistance over other factors like grip in the wet for motor vehicles so aren't as robust as could be.
They say that hauliage industry brings in (gross value ) £40Billion a year to the economy but fail to mention how much it brings in net if any. Driverless cars are said to bring in £23B gross value to the economy but again no mention of net value.
Ignoring the conservative £10-£13Billion cost from RTCs which involve injury or death (not including the millions of property only damage) motors have a negative effect on the economy as it stands and we all know this.
The labour sponsored Eddington report of 2006 stated that without expansion of the motor network (let's call it for what it is) congestion could adversely effect the UK economy, no shit sherlock, congestion and those that cause it have been doing so since day 1!
Doesn't matter who is in power, no-one has the balls or intent to do anything radical like banning motors from city/town centres, no-one has the forethought to think that cycling could be a part solution to the problem in so many areas.
It's like governments have an agenda to strangle us and deliberately make our environment a worse place to live including increased deaths and ailments.
If cyclists causing 4 deaths in five years is a strong case for new laws, then surely there is a strong case for a new law for national and local government causing many more deaths to cyclists.
Sorry, I forgot; pedestrians count, cyclists don't.
Also, don't forget the external costs of having lots of potholes: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/potholes-obesity-crisis-nhs-fat-weight-loss-car-ban-watchdog-warning-a8268411.html
It's about time we based some kind of tax (road tax?) on vehicle weight so that business logistics end up paying more towards all the damage to the roads that heavy lorries do.