It was like hitting ice, but it was not ice. A bag of British Gypsum Thistle Bonding Coat Plaster was lying in the road. The bag was burst, leaving a slippery gloop of wet plaster on the road, turning my tyres into plaster slicks.

I was severely injured – a car coming the opposite way hit me as I slid, catching my hips and breaking my pelvis. I had solicitors appointed by my insurer. I have not signed anything, but they say I have a claim against the council and are keen to get going with the claim.

However, I have done a bit of research – including some of your past articles – and as I understand it, councils are not liable for spillages on the road. This has made me reluctant to go with a firm that seems to get the basics wrong.

The whole thing has caused me pain and cost me money, so do I really have a claim, either against the council or anyone else?

Answer

You do have the possibility to make a claim and your instinct is absolutely correct. I have no idea who is giving you this advice, but it is wrong. It is well-established law at House of Lords level and Court of Appeal level that a council (in legal terms the highway authority) is not liable for material temporarily on the highway. Furthermore, the council is under no obligation to clean it unless they put it there.

You have no claim against the council and I compliment you on your presence of mind. Despite your inability to stand up, with a freshly broken pelvis, you managed to get photographs of the wet plaster with a motorcycle track running through it, the bag itself – £14.70 a bag at Wickes – and you have proven well beyond the civil burden of proof that you and your bike parted as a result of a slip on this treacherous surface.

There can be no doubt that the bag of plaster fell off a vehicle – I think I can safely bet it bounced out of the back of a builder’s Transit dropside. The builder is likely to be totally unaware that this bag bounced out until he wanted to use his bag of plaster.

The good news is you have an easy claim against the Motor Insurers’ Bureau (MIB) under the Untraced Drivers’ Agreement, which covers exactly this scenario. Had you known who dropped the bag of plaster off the road, you would have a slam-dunk case against them. The MIB step in when the driver is either uninsured or untraced.

The MIB will start an investigation, requiring evidence such as a statement from you and police reports, and they will need your medical records as you will need an orthopaedic report. But your case is virtually self-proving. For the claim to succeed, all you must prove is that it is more likely than not the split bag of plaster caused you to slide off your bike – it did. The mushy plaster left a tell-tale J-stripe – it looks like the swoosh of the Nike logo – that shows your bike going over it, and the trail of plaster ending as your wheels left the road. We even have marks on the road that match your footpegs striking the ground.

The MIB, in my long experience, will admit liability in clear cases without much delay. The process is different to ordinary litigation, though – the MIB control your medical experts and you are under an obligation to co-operate with the MIB in a way you do not have to co-operate with insurers. The MIB take their statutory duty to compensate seriously. They are overstretched and not always fast, but I have usually found them to be decent people.

Andrew Dalton

RiDE– September 2025