About six months ago, me and my clan had a holiday booked. As I fancied using the bike, my wife took the kids in the car to my parents during the day. The plan was that I would finish work, hop on the bike and go and meet them all later that evening.
Therefore, after work I duly hopped on my GS1250A and headed east. After about an hour I got to a fast, sweepy A-road and caught up with a van. After we exited a 50mph limit, it became a national speed limit, so I went to overtake it. The headlights and spotlight on the GSA are mega and lit up the road a treat. However, what I did not see as I overtook the van was a traffic island that had a missing reflective “keep left” bollard.
Whilst the GSA is a very capable bike, neither it nor I could stay sunny side up after hitting the traffic island. I am not entirely sure what happened next, but the old boy in the van reckons I was bounced straight off the bike, somersaulted and landed on my feet (which makes sense as I broke both heels). He said the bike then slid down the road on its side. Thankfully he stopped to help and later came to see me in hospital (he’s a really nice chap).
He only lives up the road from the accident site and told me he actually saw the bollard being knocked off by a lorry about six months before I hit the traffic island. He also told me he saw council workers turn up twice and stick road cones on the island (that have since disappeared) to warn drivers about it.
With all that in mind, I was completely flabbergasted this week when the council responsible for the road wrote back to me and denied liability. I had used their online system and thought my claim was a “slam dunk”.
Can I win? And what do I do next?
Answer
Firstly, I am not surprised liability has been denied. In my experience, that is nearly always the stance of pretty much every council I have ever dealt with. With that in mind, you are going to need some expert help, so I suggest you get a specialist road traffic solicitor.
They will write to the council and get “disclosure” of the inspection records of the road in question and, if the records show the council knew about the missing bollard for six months and haven’t fixed it, I think you have a very good chance of winning your case.
In addition, your solicitor needs to get a formal statement off the “old boy” in the van. Not only did he witness your accident, but he also witnessed the bollard being knocked off and the council turning up to put road cones on the traffic island, twice.
If the liability denial is maintained, which I suspect it will be, you are going to have to issue court proceedings, and the “old boy” is likely to be key in winning your claim. I would just add that if the bollard had been knocked off, say, the day before you hit it, you would likely lose your claim as it would be “unreasonable” for the council to be liable for something they had no time to see on inspection and fix; or fix it, even if it was reported soon after being knocked off.
Andrew Prendergast
Motorcycle Sport & Leisure – August 2025