Nothing is too big or small
Photo: CREDIT Martin Porter
On Monday the 12th July 2021, Jeremy was on his way home from work. Whilst riding north up York Street in Glasgow, the front wheel of his bicycle got caught in a rut in the road resulting in a very abrupt stop. Jeremy flew over the handlebars and landed on the carriageway.
Thankfully, he had only sustained some minor injuries. However, his bicycle had been damaged so he took it to a local bicycle shop to get it repaired. Jeremy had not been aware of the defect but knew that it could be a problem for other cyclists. He reported the incident to Glasgow City Council. After doing so, Jeremy also took to Twitter to warn other cyclists of the danger posed by this long rut in the road. When he did this, he was contacted by other cyclists who had been dismounted due to the same defect.
After realising the scope of the problem, Jeremy got in touch with Cycle Law Scotland to see if we could help. We discussed the options with him and told him that we would be more than happy to intimate a claim against Glasgow City Council.
As part of this claim, we requested road inspection records for York Street. These showed that they had been aware of the problem with ruts on York Street for years but had failed to implement any successful repairs that would make it safe for cyclists.
Unfortunately, Glasgow City Council were not as eager to do anything about the claim. There was a delay of around six months before they were eventually willing to discuss the case with us. After a considerable amount of chasing, they did come back to us with a denial of liability.
As part of their denial, they tried to palm off the blame to a company developing a nearby building as well as their contractors. Whilst we did intimate claims against these other companies, we knew that maintenance of a public road ultimately lies with Glasgow City Council as the local roads authority. We continued to gather all available evidence to strengthen the case. In spite of all the evidence that the rut was a big problem to cyclists that the Council were aware of, our calls for settlement went ignored by the Council. Although this case was of moderate value, we were left with no choice but to pull in the big guns and instruct a specialist in road maintenance to comment on the defect.
At Cycle Law Scotland, we take our commitment to the cycling community seriously. We’re not the type of law firm to leave any stone unturned when it comes to achieving good results for our clients. As cyclists ourselves, we know only too well the dangers that badly maintained roads can present to even the most experienced of cyclists. Jeremy was a battle-hardened, delivery cyclist. He was used to avoiding obstacles on the road. Jeremy was not asking for much. All he wanted was a safe road to cycle on. When Glasgow City Council failed to provide this for him, he was entitled to ask for compensation to repair his bicycle and a monetary award for his injuries. Through much persistence and our expertise, we were able to achieve this by presenting the case in such a way that the council could no longer ignore us and would face financial consequences if they continued to do so.
Although the injuries and loss were moderate, we maintained our usual high level of service. We are willing to pursue all leads to get our clients the settlement they deserve. Where roads authorities are aware of problems with our roads but fail to do anything before an accident occurs, we will chase, chase and chase again until we get a fair result for our clients. No case is too big or too small for our specialist team of cycling solicitors.