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Cyclist hospitalised after crashing into enormous pothole and 'somersaulting' off her bike

The pothole was estimated to be between five and six inches deep

A father is demanding action after his son’s partner was injured and taken to hospital after a pothole 'somersaulted' her off her bike.

Carlton Reid, an experienced transport journalist, rushed to help following the crash after his son's girlfriend Emma hit a pothole estimated to be five or six inches deep. 

While Emma escaped with just cuts and bruises, her bike was 'a write-off', The Chronicle reports. 

Speaking to the Newcastle based paper, Carlton said: “I’d like the council to fix the roads, but I recognise it is starved of funds by the Government, so this is tough.

“The Government should be spending the road-building money on fixing what we’ve got, rather than, in the words of the PM, spaffing it up the wall.”

The group of four 'experienced riders' were on Villa Lane, near Longframlington, when Emma, the partner of his son, Josh, was 'somersaulted from her bike' when she hit a pothole she hadn't seen due to water on the road.

A pair of passing doctors stopped to help and helped them to a nearby pub while they waited for paramedics to check her over.

In March last year the Government announced plans to spend £500m a year filling potholes, on top of wider plans for 4,000 miles of new road worth £27bn.

Carlton added he had reported the pothole to Northumberland County Council (NCC), which assured him an engineer would be dispatched to assess the road. 

A council spokesperson said: "The council takes the quality of road surfaces and repair of potholes very seriously and invests considerable time and resource in making ongoing improvements.

“We have increased our spending on road repairs and this continues as a priority for investment.

“As well as pothole repairs we undertake more significant improvement schemes that represent better long term value for money and we have allocated an additional £15m from the Council’s own financial resources to support a two-year enhanced maintenance programme for minor roads and footpaths.

“This is in addition to the £22m being invested this year on road maintenance works across Northumberland.

“We have now received a report identifying the location of this particular pothole and we are taking urgent action to make the necessary repairs."

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23 comments

Avatar
Judge dreadful | 2 years ago
5 likes

This is why I won't ride through puddles. If you can't see what's in there, don't ride through it.

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Sniffer replied to Judge dreadful | 2 years ago
1 like

That is a good policy, but sometimes other road traffic can make that challenging.  On a recent wet ride I passed a few places where my whole lane was a puddle.  I could pass into the on-coming lane if it was clear, but that isn't always the case.

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jh2727 replied to Sniffer | 2 years ago
1 like

When the whole lane is flooded, I'll often take my chances and hope for the best. However when there is a 'puddle', like the one shown, some way from the edge of the road - that is a clear indication of either a hole or a depression, which is always best avoided. Not that I, in any way, blame the victim for this - just helpful advice on how deal with our pothole riddled roads.

Other helpful indicators, are the size of the splash when larger vehicles pass through it - if lots of water splashes up, it's going to be a deep puddle.

Another thing, if it's a wide puddle often ride around it, to avoided being showered by close passing vehicles.  They should already be taking care to avoid the puddles, so as not to splash pedestrians.

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joe9090 | 2 years ago
5 likes

Without meaning to feel superior, we do not even know what potholes are here...
Love from the Netherlands!

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Captain Badger replied to joe9090 | 2 years ago
3 likes
joe9090 wrote:

Without meaning to feel superior, we do not even know what potholes are here...
Love from the Netherlands!

Now go away before I taunt you a second time....

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Awavey | 2 years ago
2 likes

I never understand why people quote the 27bn road figure, a five year settlement, which includes 10bn of road maintenance, & funding for cycling infrastructure against a specific 500m yearly, its 2.5bn over 5 years, boost fund targetted specifically at fixing potholes, which is in addition to the 1.3bn for this year the DfT are giving councils for ongoing road maintenance.

now you might still argue thats still not enough,given the pothole fix is estimated at 10bn for the year, but can we all agree to at least debate the figures in the same units for once and include all the budget given to authorities to maintain our roads.

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Rendel Harris replied to Lance ꜱtrongarm | 2 years ago
23 likes
Nigel Garrage wrote:

Of course if council pensions didn't cost north of £5bn per year, local authorities would have far more money to spend on things like fixing potholes and bothering to cut back verges etc

And if we took pensions off nurses we'd have far more to spend on the NHS, and if we took pensions away from soldiers we'd have more money to spend on defence, and if we took pensions off teachers we'd have more money to spend on education...

Or instead of indulging in a rightwing wet dream we could actually think of the true ways money is being wasted, the £100BN tax gap, another £100BN on HS2, the projected £200BN on a Trident replacement, and of course the hundreds of billions and rising cost of your beloved Brexit before blaming a lack of funds on the perfectly legitimate and relatively inexpensive cost of retirement benefits for public servants.

(p.s. Just to save you reaming out one of your colour-by-numbers supercilious replies, no I'm not a public servant)

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Hirsute replied to Rendel Harris | 2 years ago
6 likes

All those schemes have been amended over the years to reduce the burden on taxpayers and the older , more beneficial schemes are not open to new starters.

Of course you could simply cut pay instead...

Or recognise that you are offering a package to attract people..

Or recognise that a reduction in ER contributions now will only result in more goverement assistance in the future.

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Awavey replied to Rendel Harris | 2 years ago
5 likes

one of the things missing from the bike shortage caused by lack of HGV drivers story, is that roughly 30% of container traffic leaves some of our ports via rail, not road.

HS2 will unlock badly needed capacity on the west coast main line to run more freight trains replacing the current passenger services,with each freight train taking approx 75 trucks off UK roads, trucks that cause the most pollution, most damage to and most danger on our road network.

why do people always concentrate on the why do we need to get between Birmingham and London quicker parts of HS2?

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TheBillder replied to Awavey | 2 years ago
4 likes
Awavey wrote:

one of the things missing from the bike shortage caused by lack of HGV drivers story, is that roughly 30% of container traffic leaves some of our ports via rail, not road.

HS2 will unlock badly needed capacity on the west coast main line to run more freight trains replacing the current passenger services,with each freight train taking approx 75 trucks off UK roads, trucks that cause the most pollution, most damage to and most danger on our road network.

why do people always concentrate on the why do we need to get between Birmingham and London quicker parts of HS2?

Ok, how much cheaper would it be if HS2 became Normal Speed n, compatible with existing rolling stock and just extra capacity for the existing network?

I only concentrate on the pointlessness of spending all that money on helping people get from that London to Birmingham faster because that's the benefit which the proponents of the scheme seem to publicise.

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Haitchaitch replied to TheBillder | 2 years ago
2 likes

Yes let’s just base our new infrastructure development on already outdated technologies… why on Earth would you want to future proof???

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TheBillder replied to Haitchaitch | 2 years ago
2 likes
Haitchaitch wrote:

Yes let’s just base our new infrastructure development on already outdated technologies… why on Earth would you want to future proof???

Why is normal speed rail outdated? Who is in this dreadful hurry? What is this future-proofing thing? Is that what the Pentium processor (TM, duh-dah-duh-dah) did?

We can choose solutions to problems that use entirely adequate technology. Or we can go for the bleeding edge. 747 vs Concorde. Which succeeded? Is there enough demand to be in New York before you set out from London for the huge cost? Is there a lesson in the fact that no other supersonic airliner has been developed since? Will there ever be value in having 20 mins less on the laptop on the train for £100bn?

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Rendel Harris replied to Awavey | 2 years ago
6 likes

As of 2018, only half the freight paths available on the West Coast Mainline were in use. If the rail freight system was working at capacity and there was more demand, there would be some justification for HS2 (though more for building new freight routes, which wouldn't require the same arrow-straight line for high speed that is causing an environmental catastophe everywhere HS2 goes), but it isn't. HS2 is an absurd vanity project we don't need and can't afford that's only being kept alive to assuage the large construction firms on which the Tory party relies so heavily for donations.

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TheBillder replied to Rendel Harris | 2 years ago
1 like
Rendel Harris wrote:

HS2 is an absurd vanity project we don't need and can't afford that's only being kept alive to assuage the large construction firms on which the Tory party relies so heavily for donations.

Surely we could just subsidise the bonuses for the bosses of building firms by having a publicly funded bung paid to people buying a house instead, which puts the price of all houses up and distorts the market. Oh wait...

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AidanR replied to Lance ꜱtrongarm | 2 years ago
11 likes

I agree about fixing potholes. I don't begrudge ordinary people a decent pension. It's not like we don't have the money as a nation.

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Captain Badger replied to AidanR | 2 years ago
6 likes
AidanR wrote:

I agree about fixing potholes. I don't begrudge ordinary people a decent pension. It's not like we don't have the money as a nation.

Indeed we have one of the worst pension provisions in the western world, in spite of the "triple lock" - a high percentage increase on fack all still leaves you with fack all.

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TheBillder replied to Captain Badger | 2 years ago
1 like
Captain Badger wrote:

Indeed we have one of the worst pension provisions in the western world, in spite of the "triple lock" - a high percentage increase on fack all still leaves you with fack all.

I have a vague feeling that UK state pensions (as opposed to the workplace pensions of those who worked for the state) are not all that bad by international standards of penury. But the triple lock can't last - in the long term it makes pensioners better off relative to working age people in poverty, and inter-generational inequality isn't good. But older people vote, and tend to vote Con in greater numbers.

That said, I don't for a moment disagree that we have generally terrible support for people who need it. I'd love to make it compulsory for every MP to live on Universal Credit for a week a year. Probably week one of the five it takes - by design - to get paid anything at all on UC.

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Captain Badger replied to TheBillder | 2 years ago
1 like
TheBillder wrote:

But the triple lock can't last - in the long term it makes pensioners better off relative to working age people in poverty, and inter-generational inequality isn't good.

No, and it shouldn't be seen as a point of ideology either nor does it need to be. As you say the issue is inadequate support for those that need it, regardless of age, or even a society and economy that ensures that it doesn't happen in the first place.

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Rendel Harris replied to Lance ꜱtrongarm | 2 years ago
1 like
Nigel Garrage wrote:

We really *don't* have the money as a nation to support this long term as the population pyramid becomes increasingly top-heavy with unfunded public pensions. Something will have to give.

How about tax evasion and avoidance, absurdly low and easily avoided corporate tax, absurd expenditure on "defence" and "infrastructure" that benefits nobody but political donors and the costs of a rightwing paranoia project are addressed first? If after that you can seriously claim that we *don't* have the money to pay nurses' and teachers' pensions...

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Haitchaitch replied to Lance ꜱtrongarm | 2 years ago
9 likes

What a badly informed piece of right wing garbage mouthpiece copy and paste nonsense. Glad to see Rendel put the record straight.

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RoubaixCube | 2 years ago
13 likes

maybe some kind soul should always have a can of spray paint on them so they can draw a big white/red/yellow penis where the pot hole is. Its the best tried and tested method of getting the local council out to make repairs in no time.

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andystow | 2 years ago
7 likes

“As well as pothole repairs we undertake more significant improvement schemes that represent better long term value for money..."

Are they saying they do improvement schemes as a higher priority than fixing potholes because the improvement schemes represent a "better long term value for money"? Seriously?

"Improvement schemes" normally means more road surface, which they will also be unable to afford to keep in good repair. Widening roads is a money loser for councils. They just haven't done the maths on it.

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bertisfantastic | 2 years ago
15 likes

It's worth doing a foi request to see if the hole had been reported, what the maintenance schedule for that road is, when it was lastdue to be inspected and when it was actually  inspected etc. Council has a duty to ensure that roads and road furniture are safe. 
 

fillthathole is an excellent app for telling the council that potholes are there. Every single one I report I say "is a significant hazard to cyclists". 
 

that way if someone comes a cropper on it then the council will find it difficult to defend, given how long it takes to get holes repaired. 

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