Council threatens to sue cyclist left in coma for eight days over £240 road closure bill

Of course he should pay. Drivers can be sued for such damage so cyclists must accept a similar responsibility.
Cyclists rightly want fair and safe access to the highways; well we must then be safe and pay our fair share.

They don't think the taxpayer should pay for this poor guy's genuine mistake which nearly killed him? But you can bet they think the taxpayer has to pay for their own blunders, all the time, to the tune of serious money and not small change, as this amount is to a council. Look at the article, on this site, on Brighton and Hove paying £800,00 to install cycle lanes, then over a million to have them ripped out.

£240 is the kind of sum some functionary at the council would dream up for having a bloke go out in a van, put up a red and white safety barrier, then take it away again an hour or two later.

I had no idea these sorts of costs (or ambulance costs for that matter) were generally recovered after an accident - always thought that was one of the many things we pay tax for. I'd be interested to know what the cost of recovery is (i.e. how much would be saved if the people whose job it is to write letters and chase up these debts were employed doing something else) - when they are chasing up sums of less than £250, you'd think they would to a point where the cost outweighs what they recover.

I do agree with the principle that the guy shouldn't be treated differently just because he was on a bike, but he is as comparable to a pedestrian as to a driver - he is not required to have insurance, and there is a limit to the amount of damage he could do (whereas the reason motor vehicle insurance is required is because of the potential damage which can be inflicted with a motor vehicle). I'd like to bet they wouldn't have tried to recover it from an 'uninsured' pedestrian who had walked out into the road without looking and caused an accident, and if that is the case they shouldn't be trying to recover it from him either.

Bikeandy - if you've been knocked off your bike by a driver then the bill should automatically go to the driver.

While I feel for the guy and do have to question where the costs came from or how they were derived let me state an experience.

The first time I was knocked off my bike by a car (about 1988) an ambulance was called for me. About 2 weeks later I got a letter from my health authority asking for something like £45 for the cost of the ambulance. As the guy who hit me had admitted fault and simply asked for the costs of repairs to my cycle, I simply posted the bill to him and never heard anymore. I was quite shocked to find that this was how things were done but there you go.

I know it's a bit off topic but if an ambulance is called out for me cos I have a heart attack do I get a bill for that too or is it just accidents where someone can be said to be to blame. (And if I have a heart attack cos I have drank to excess, smoked and eaten crap for 30 years couldn't someone claim that I was to blame and so deserve to be charged for the ambulance?)

Not my understanding of how civilisation works but what do I know? Just wait till big society really kicks in and we can all take a hand in running our country.

I have sent an email to councillor Joe De’Asha asking for a breakdown of the councils costs.

What a mean, penny pinching approach.

Just find a pothole and launch a counter- suit.

bikecellar,

agreed! who has decided that it cost £240 to close the road? a totally theoretical charge.

if a pedestrian was run over, and it was "their" fault, would they send the pedestrian a bill also?

I am wondering where the cost of closing the road comes from. The police usually close a road at an accident site, where does the council come into it. Possibly the police billed the council? I note they took no action against the cyclist.

Please improve the proof reading of stories, this ain't the first one with errors

So, do they bill drivers and peds for road closures in cases like this? if not bit of discrimination going on there

Joe de Asha's full contact details are on the Council's website. I'm sure my fellow cyclists would like to send him their views on how he has treated this poor guy.

http://moderngov.sthelens.gov.uk/mgUserInfo.aspx?UID=135