A MOTORCYCLIST  is seeking compensation from Cumbria County Council for injuries sustained in a motorcycle crash after the rider hit a pothole on one of the region's roads.

Paul Quayl suffered a suspected broken collarbone and cracked ribs when he was thrown from his motorcycle after hitting a pothole on the A590. Mr Quayle now plans to claim compensation from the council, who, he believes, are responsible for the upkeep of the condition of the area's road.

“The council owns the road and it shouldn’t be in such a bad state that it causes accidents. I was lucky that my injuries weren’t any worse, but someone else might not be as lucky.

“There was a van coming towards me, but I managed to swerve out of the way. I just want to warn people to take care. I will be making a claim to the council.”

However, Cumbria County Council has said it will not be paying up if the pothole had not been reported and the road had been recently checked by its highways department.

A Cumbria Highways spokesman told the North West Evening Mail it could not comment on individual incidents, but added: “Motorists making a claim regarding potholes are asked to provide various details about the incident via a form.

“The form is forwarded to our insurance company, who work with us to investigate the claim and advise as to whether there are any grounds for compensation.

“Regular inspections are carried out on our roads, with the degree of frequency for the inspection ranging from monthly to three-monthly, six-monthly or annually, depending on the volume of traffic using the route.

“We would not expect to be liable if a motorist hits a pothole that was not reported to the Highways Hotline and we had inspected that road within the agreed timeframe.”

Have you ever tried claiming compensation for a similar incident?

 QUOTE “Regular inspections are carried out on our roads, with the degree of frequency for the inspection ranging from monthly to three-monthly, six-monthly or annually, depending on the volume of traffic using the route."

That is the biggest load of B@ll@cks i have ever heard,
i live in the town that the incident happened,
the roads are like a MOTO X course around here,

And the council never seems to fix them 
                                                                                                                                                                             

I hope he takes em for thousands                                                                                                                                                                               

Obviously sympathise, but guess who funds the council.     And, allegedly, compensation claims are eating into funds that might othewise be put to road repairs.                                                                                                                                                                             

Yes got new screen out of brum highways after a 3 mounth row thay tryed same crap (if it had been reported) but it had several times over a 6 mounths and we had the ref numbers to prove it and thay must do a repair within 14 days of repoted pothole ? LIKE THAT HAPPENS

They used the 'weather' for the reasn that a huge pot hole by me wasnt filled in ............                                                                                                                                                                              

Rob i do not have to guess  who funds the council,  but if you were in his shoes would you not claim compensation,

 http://www.nwemail.co.uk/news/injured-barrow-biker-to-sue-council-1.763145?referrerPath=news

Can't argue, yes I would, if I could.   But ultimately we all pay, in the form of increased taxes, insurance premiums etc                                                                                                                                                                             

Totally agree with you Rob .
                                                                                                                                                                             

feel sorry for him but  he should have been studying the road surface for hazards and have left space and time to deal with them, it could have been anything, a dead animal, something thrown from a car etc etc, we all should take responsibility for our own actions.

I also agree with you Julie, but I ride defensively, and I have hit the odd unavoidable pot hole. I know of one that appeared over night on a very tight blind bend, even with the correct road positioning and speed, it nearly had me off.                                                                                                                                                                             

Same here julie i agree as i would just blame myself rather than blaming someone else,the blame culture i guess                                                                                                                                                                             

yep sometimes hazards are unavoidable but this sue everyone mentality really bugs me its seems like an Americanism which has slowly crept in to the british way of life over the years and an inability to face up to anything traumatic which could have been avoided, sometimes no one is to blame accidents happen and some (shock horror) motorcyclists are bad just motorists!!wonder if he had taken the new test with the dreaded swerve manouver??? would it have made any difference?? keep training everyone!!!                                                                                                                                                                             

"!!wonder if he had taken the new test with the dreaded swerve manouver??? would it have made any difference?"     Good point, well made.                                                                                                                                                                             

Is the swerve test the one where you are going along a straight, dark country road at 50mph with nasty little dips in that can hide you and you come out of one to find a woman driver overtaking her second car in a row heading straight for you on your side of the road? If so I failed cos I swerved but still hit her. I went right down the side of her car and stuffed it all in AND stayed on the bike but then dropped it seconds after getting past her. It's weird watching your pride and joy sliding down the road, the back half on the grass verge, while you are sliding behind it. She admitted she had seen me and had continued overtaking, I didnt even get an aplology! So yeah, I sued for my broken bone, which aches occasionally and always will do, battered body, flashbacks and damaged gear.

I sympathise with anyone who has had an accident as a result of todays pigheadedness of motorists or beaurocrats who are only worried about saving some time or a few bob.Sadly this situation has now got so far out of hand there is probably no going back.
 Saving a few quid on the odd road repair or a cheap fix some 10 years ago has just snowballed into roads reminisant of the middle ages-having been left for so long now it would cost a phenominal amount to put it all right.Sadly,it is cheaper for the councils to pay out the compensation claims than to do the repairs!!
 As for pigheaded drivers,this comes about from being wrapped up in cotton wool from an early age so they never have to feel the pain from getting injured-so,of course,they will never understand the concequences of their actions so it doesn`t matter to them.Plus there are not enough actual police out there to do anything about it anyway-either tied up with the paperwork of last weeks arrest or made redudant `coz we`ve got to pay for the cameras so we can watch it all on TV.
 Not that I`m bitter at all about just paying over £200 on the new tax disc for my car that I now will only go to line some government bodies pocket & not on road maintenance like it`s supposed to......

Oops...ranting on a bit,there,sorry.
                                                                                                                                                                             

some roads in the UK are shocking.  My 50 mile round-trip to work and back in Manchester was so bad at points that I ended up knowing the precise location of each pothole.  I then noticed every single new hole that appeared.  It was so bad that I had my own route created around some corners so I didn't get caught out.   And yes we've all hit that huge unavoidable hole whilst our attention was drawn to the child kicking the football, or the speed camera coming up etc lol.  We can't have out eyes on everything all the time                                                                                                                                                                             

Cumbria experiences extreme weather that's much harder than most places in England. (note I say England, not Wales & Scotland). Extreme weather chews roads. Normally the county council copes but the weather has been extra extreme the last year or two. The English county council funding allocation formulae, doesn't take into account the extra expense of coping with extreme weather in rural locations...(not to mention providing health and emergency services in rural loacations). They've reached the point where some roads can't be maintained to standard we became accustomed to. Hence really deep treacherous potholes on horrid bends and on steep hills.... it was only a question of time till some poor biker came a cropper

I have to say im 50/50 on the compensation thing. I do think the guy that hit the pothole should get paid out though, even if to just cover the cost of repairs or replacing his bike. 

Ok we have had some bad weather but if the council didn't waste fund on pointless projects, such as digging up and road and relaying it when there is absolutely no need to do so, then the councils would have more funds to spend on repairing the roads and filling in potholes, which then would reduce accidents and reduce claims, thus in fact saving money. The way the council do it is a complete false economy and as for having to spend the whole budget before the new budget, how ridiculous is that. 
Surely it is better not to just spend funds due to the new budget and save it in an emergency fund, such as would have been very useful for repairing roads, etc. after the extreme weather we have experienced of late. 

So yeah Wraith your right about pigheadness as well, like the driver i had a go at today while sitting in my mums car, he was less than a foot away from the rear wheel of a biker, so i shouted at him to give him more room (he didn't like this of course). 

Grrr to useless councils and pigheaded motorists. 

I do however agree, too many are on the look out for a quick claim these days which makes others that have real reasons to claim look bad.                                                                                                                                                                              

I had a friend who has claimed and won twice .... once in MK when he was going onto a r/about was looking left and a pothole had developed overnight ..... He broke his wrist and totalled his bike ....he got pictures on the day which was lucky cos the council tried to say there was no pothole in the road in record time they fixed it (overnight to be exact) but as he had pis which were time and dated they lost.

The next was in London he was on VMAX and got stuck in groove on road going round bend on A10 I believe it led straight to pothole he lost the bike in this one but just bruises and cuts this time again pics were taken over several weeks finally thy reparired it and he was compensated.....thy argued that there was no potholes or grooves but the pics backed his version.

He is a all yr round biker and does not drive cars ..... rides defensively and always scans the road for hazards.

Accidents can and will happen...... The Highways authority are quick to point the blame at riders/drivers but in both these cases inspectors actually drove on these roads daily they must of seen them.