Description
The Claimant was cycling along a residential road when he suddenly swerved, lost control of his bicycle and sustained injuries to his skull and arm. He had no memory of the incident. The Claimant's cycling partner inspected the road after the accident and found a long, linear defect in the road which was 40mm deep and adjacent to the centre of the carriageway. The Defendant's road inspector had inspected the road six months previously. He accepted that if he had seen the defect he would have designated it as "category one", which requires rectification within seven days. He stated that because it was to the offside of his vehicle it would not have been visible to him.
It was held that on the balance of probabilities the Claimant had travelled over the centre-line and his front wheel had entered the defect or he had swerved to avoid the defect. The inspector's failure to notice the defect was a breach of duty. The main damage to roads occurs in winter and so it was likely that the defect had been in a worse condition six months before the accident. The statutory defence was not made out. The Claimant did not bear any responsibility. Cycling at 18-20 miles per hour was not excessive. The Claimant was awarded £20,000 for future disadvantage of the labour market because he was now unable to deal with high level tasks.
