It was one of those tiny trailers that some people use to take to the tip (in my opinion, pretty useless, as it’s about the size of a shoebox, but to each their own). The driver was a bit of a plonker as he was in the outside lane, doing about 75mph, overtaking. In other words, he was driving illegally.

However, as long as he wasn’t causing me any hassle, I wasn’t too fussed, as I was cruising in the middle lane, passing an HGV. Anyway, the next thing I saw was the tyre on the trailer burst, and the trailer furiously shaking the car (imagine a tail wagging the dog, so to speak). Whilst my attention was focused on trying to avoid the car, my daughter in the back (she’s an adult and was sitting with her baby boy) shouted a biker had been taken out by the trailer tyre that had come off.

After we all screeched to a halt, I ran back to the biker, and an HGV pulled across to protect the car and trailer. Fast-forward half-an-hour and poor old Derek, the biker, had been taken off in an ambulance with a broken pelvis and ankle. I gave my details to the Police and Derek, and hadn’t heard anything until yesterday when Derek contacted me.

He told me the Police hadn’t decided whether to prosecute the car driver yet as it may be ‘just one of those things’. He also asked if I’d be a witness as the car driver’s insurer had denied liability and said the trailer tyre bursting wasn’t anyone’s fault.

At this point, Derek got a bit of a shock when I told him the car driver told me his tyre had a slow puncture and he’d had to pump it up every 50 miles or so. He was even more shocked when I told him I cleared the tyre off the motorway along with some of his broken bike bits to stop anyone else hitting them and they are still in the back of my car (I was going to do a tip run that weekend). The trailer tyre is pretty bald.

Derek asked if I could help, which as a fellow biker, I’m more than happy to do so. However, neither of us know what to do next.

Answer

The Good Samaritan! Derek is lucky you stopped.

First things first, Derek needs to get himself his own specialist solicitor as he’s going to need some legal help. As you want to help Derek, you and your daughter need to contact the Police and give witness statements. You can give evidence the car driver was speeding with a trailer and overtaking in the fast lane when he shouldn’t have been.

You can also give evidence of what the driver told you about the puncture and picking the bald tyre off the road. Your daughter can give evidence of seeing Derek getting taken out by the burst tyre. If the Police are any good, they should come and collect the tyre for forensic testing.

We had a case a few years ago where a car driver repeatedly kept re-inflating a tyre with a slow puncture. The result of that was as the tyre repeatedly ran flat/under-inflated, then re-inflated, it weakened, until one day it burst and wiped out our poor biker client.

If the Police can prove that in Derek’s case and/or it burst due to being bald, etc., they may well prosecute the car driver and that will help Derek. If the Police do not do that, Derek’s solicitor will likely need to get the tyre looked at by a forensic expert, as well as getting a statement from you and your daughter.

Whatever you do, please do not throw away the tyre. It is key evidence.

Andrew ‘Chef’ Prendergast

More Bikes – July 2024