What the hell is wrong with people?!

Going to work on my usual route this morning from Lindley to Cummins Turbo Technologies. I go along Halifax Old Road and through Edgerton as is seems to be the quickest route and drop onto th ring road by the college.

Anyway, long story short, there a downhill section with a sharp sweeping right hander which drops you onto the ring road. Going down the as usual, 40mph, dab the brakes and holy sh*t! I still can't beleive how I managed to stay on the bike. Back end was coming round, front wanted to fold out from under me and I was spearing straight on into a wall. Somehow it stopped upright, just shy of flying up the curb and into the wall.

Gathered myself together with the overwhelming stench of diesel (and probably some poo!) and carried on.

Got to the lights and there was a coach there with what can only be described as gallons of diesel pouring out from underneath. I pulled up to the drivers door and starting shouting furiously at him, as you would! He opens the window, smiled and said he knew. One of the lines has cracked and he was going to the depot to get it fixed...

To say I was amazed is an understatement.

How can people knowingly drive round with gallons of diesel spilling out the back onto wet roads?

I'm hoping it burst into flames further down the road and next time he'll probably be a bit more considerate to others...

You should have got the name of the company and the registration number.  If someone had come off later in the day at least they would have had a claim.  Hard to think of stuff like that when you're stuck to your undies though lol                                                                                                                                                                             

Yeah, I looked at the reg but by the time I got to work it had gone from my mind completely. Should have parked in front of him or something and phoned the police.

I'd put money on someone having crashed there this morning...                                                                                                                                                                             

S24 - you need to notify the Police.  I've posted about this sort of issue before.

Basically, the highway authority are obliged to keep the public highway free of the likes of diesel.

As such, if you have an off as a result of snow, diesel etc then you may have a claim against the local authority.  But not if they can claim they don't know about it!  Even then you may still not have a claim as they may be able to demonstrate that they have taken measures to deal with the issue, for which they are allowed a "reasonable" time.

But the big get out clause is that they don't know about it.

I've found from personal experience that different highway authorities "respond" to these things in very different ways.  However, if you notifiy the Police, they will formally notify the highway authority internally and then they can't claim they didn't know.

You may have got away with it, but the next biker may not, so contact the gestapo.                                                                                                                                                                              

  I was thinking it wasn't the drivers fault a fuel pipe cracked but when he said he was 'going to the depot' that's when I would  have reached for my mobile and called the cops.    I'm glad you didn't come off your bike SDJ   (I used to pass Cummins every day on my way to work, do you know if are there any admin jobs going there?)                                                                                                                                                                              

S24, I would deffo report it to the police, the chances are if it's a local firm and you are able to tell them the colours of the vehicle they will know who it is and track them down, the firm will know which vehicles have had to be repaired.   Small spillages can be bad enuf but from what you say this is an accident waitin to happen. What you now do could prevent an accident.   Glad u managed to stay shiny side up!!!!                                                                                                                                                                             

Think you will find it is an offence to leave any spill on the road if the coach driver knew he had a spilt fuel line and carried on driving he would be charged next time just sit in front of the coach/bus van truck and call the police or vosa                                                                                                                                                                              

Yeah, I reported it and the police came back saying thanks. Unfortunately they are unable to catch the driver but they said they'd check the CCTV. They got the highways agency out and cleaned it up. Not very well as you could still see it for a week!

And yes, next time I'll definitely be parking in front of the offending vehicle. Still can't believe his blasé attitude towards dumping gallons of diesel down!

Sandi, don't think there are any admin jobs going on site at the minute. Mostly jobs in Europe at the moment. I'll keep my eyes open and let you know I anything comes up. :)

This is in our interest and most of us have a cam on our phone so next one we see with a fuel leak or cap missing tell the driver if he/she don't care take the pic and make the call if its a bus or truck also call vosa if we all do this the roads get safer

When I was courier early 90's, I followed a diesel trail in London to a coach, blocked it in and found a bike cop job done                                                                                                                                                                                

a friend of mine was riding his bike to scarborough one day , whilst riding round a corner he knew well he checked his mirrors and then woke up in hospital with broken pelvis shatterd knees and internal injurys ,   he couldnt remember what happened and was told he had slid off on a diesel spill and traveled over the grass verge through a fence into a field (thankfully no telliphone poles as usual ) he did make  a full recovery and still rides bikes now but it shows how dangerouse diesel is on the roads and all to common place so if i ever see any one spilling it i will do my upmost to get them stopped  DIESEL SPILLS KILLS as they say allways has allways will                                                                                                                                                                              

If you are unlucky enough to come off on a diesel spill you can make a claim through the Motorist Insurers Bureau, however there are time limits on when you can claim and you need to have all the right information to hand.
Get an incident report in writing from police within five days of accident (or as soon as reasonably practicable thereafter - this should only be relied upon in cases such as where the injured party was in a coma for a while) if the claim will include property or property related damage.
If the claim is for injuries only then get the incident number within 14 days (or as soon as reasonably practicable).
Submit the claim to MIB within nine months if the claim includes property damage.If the claim is for injuries only, submit within three years. Best advice is to gather required documentation and submit as soon as possible.

                                                                                                                                                                             

Thanks gixergal, I didn't know about MIB and have saved them as favourite for future reference.                                                                                                                                                                             

I only came about it by chance and thought best share what I discovered                                                                                                                                                                              

Interesting , post gg. Tim came off only last weekend on a service station exit sliproad...will let him know about this (when he gets back from KISS!!!)                                                                                                                                                                             

Alice, I hope Tim is ok and the bike not too damaged.                                                                                                                                                                             

Nothing that stopped him getting to a rally                                                                                                                                                                              

The people who knowingly still crap all over the roads should be prosecuted and will be if you report it, use your mobi take a picture of the vehicle, company name, rego and report it to the police.   Lets get these idiots off the roads.