BikeBiz)
Half of all cyclists have been harmed after riding into potholes, claims BBC 5 live survey
Big survey of cyclists – done via Cycling UK and Cycling Weekly – finds that pothole injuries are common
Carlton Reidan hour ago
Half of all cyclists have been harmed after riding into potholes according to a BBC questionnaire. BBC 5 Live Investigates also used Freedom of Information requests to reveal that spending on road repairs has fallen in real terms across the United Kingdom during the past five years.Between 2013 and 2017, local authority budgets for road repairs fell by 10 percent across the UK as a whole. 5,000 cyclists responded to 5 live Investigate’s survey.
49.5 percent said they hah had an “accident” due to a pothole in the road. 1516 cyclists said they were injured as a result, with 207 saying they were “seriously injured.”
31 percent of cyclists asked in this survey said they had been put off cycling due to potholes
Dani Rowe, Olympic Gold medallist and three-time world champion cyclist, told the BBC she was shocked by these results.
“That’s quite frightening actually,” said Rowe, who broke eight ribs and punctured a lung after a collision with a pothole during a training ride in 2014.
“A lot more needs to be invested into making our roads better for sure,” she said.
Kate Uzzell, whose husband Martyn, died after being thrown into the path of a car by a pothole in 2011, told the BBC that “sadly, people are still going through the trauma I did. People’s lives are being destroyed.”
The driver of the car, Talvinder Panesar said “all this could have been avoided, the pain that everybody is going through, if the right policy had been followed [by those responsible for the maintaining the road where the incident took place]”.
A coroner subsequently found North Yorkshire County Council had missed opportunities to repair the A65 in Giggleswick.
Uzzell, who received a six-figure settlement after launching a civil action against the council, told the BBC that she did not blame Panesar for what happened.
Following her husband’s death, she successfully campaigned for changes to the road inspection regime with the charity Roadpeace.
