Croydon cyclist breaks wrist after hitting base of cycle lane wand removed by council

I had a similar injury in Sept 2022 (still suffering it today) where the council removes infra (this time lighting) from a cycle route and caused me to crash out (slow motion style but was kind of picked up and body slammed into the ground like a wrestler).

They installed these "wands" down here in Southampton last year too. Half of them have been driven over already and not replaced. As the guy in the article says - there is no reflective material in the base - surely anyone doing a risk assessment should be fired for not assuming these devices are useless, and yet ignoring their design fault and installing regardless?

Not much different to a pothole is it. If you can't see these, then you probably cant see a pot hole and the chances are it would happen then too. Both are down to council negligence. 

I have to admit that I'm in two minds about this one, as someone who lives a mere few hundred metres from where the incident happened.

Removing the wands makes no sense, other than for the fact that the mayor doesn't want the lanes there.  Very near to where the accident happened there is a base that stops cars undertaking cars waiting to turn right.  I'd say that 99% of the day there is no queue to turn right, but for certain "busy" periods there can be.  Of course locals complain and say the blocks need to be removed because an ambulance might be held up and lives could be put at risk due to the delay. Ultimately they just don't like having to wait in the single lane.

Anyway, back to this accident.  I can totally understand someone not used to cycling along that road getting caught out, particularly at night.  However, if someone uses it regularly you know that the blocks are there without wands and you know how regularly they are spaced.  You also (sadly) expect lots of cars parked in the cycle lane.  The whole time I cycle I am always paying attention to the road because of things like broken glass and potholes, so I am slightly surprised this guy was caught out. 

The conditions wouldn't have helped and I can imagine the troubles he has been through.  I'm six months on from having a bad shoulder break after being hit by someone on an e-scooter while cycling home and am still some way from being back to normal, so his troubles are not lost on me.  It sounds like he fared better with the local hospital than I did.  Unlike him, I had to wait two and a half weeks before they operated the first time and am now three weeks on from a second operation.

I fully understand this, I see events every day where bikers ride along totally oblivious to everything around them . I regularly have bikes run into my wheelchair on pavements and if they claim not to be able to see a full grown man in a chair perhaps we need sight and mental compentensy tests before bikers can ride in public .i wish I had a camera on my chair then I could post the silly things I see , most people won't believe them as they are so dangerous that people in their right mind just would not do

I get this is an infuriating case, the council acted wrongfully in multiple ways, and the whole episode feels like a very personal physical let down about local government. It's like being in a hospital and being seriously injured by appalling negligence and then they can't even bothered to process the complaint properly or produce records. Re the latter, a solicitor (go to a GOOD firm like Irwin Mitchell who don't just do no win no fee but also are famously good with public law) will tell you that failure to produce evidence counts against not for the council. It will be no win no fee if you have a case I think.

I have one pedantic niggle. "The Metropolitan Police Service is also said to have declined to investigate the crash. " What specifically criminal liability could lie for the crash? None I think. Isn't the only potential criminal avenue the common law criminal offence of public nuisance? In the case the idea of the police's involvement is silly because it's an exceptional form of offence and the primary purpose of that measure is to remove the nuisance. It's unnecessary because the council is absolutely steel-bound by its public law obligations to not injure. Chances are it was removed within 24hrs.

I do think you sound truly shaken by this incident in a deep way. It was good that you got this story out. I think your next avenues are formal complaint and going to a good firm for no win no fee injury. You could if concerned about the systemic issue of these in your borough, ring the HSE advice line who may tell you to formally complain to the council and ring them back if the response is unsatisfactory. Good luck and make sure you let others do the hard legal work which is always a technical specialism even within the legal field itself.

You will probably win, I hope you get a good award, and an apology, and that you enjoy every penny. You deserve it.

Can't believe they left those in.
Reminds me of the cycle lane at a roundabout in shepperton where the line was many layers of plastic. If you hit that, you were coming off.
They got rid it in the end.

This is further proof that half-arsed infra is worth than useless.

Do it once and do it correctly; take more investment or time as required.

Hmm suing the local authority is a good idea however a direct suit against the pro car mayor would bring better media coverage.....would be interesting when reporters start questioning why not remove the wand bases £10 bet it was extra cost to remove the bases....watch this space am finding this mayors home address anyone up for wand mischief????

Sadly, this report doesn't surprise me at all.  I mostly work from home but my office is in central Croydon and I usually cycle there twice a week.  My route home, in the summer at least, often takes me down Brighton Road where this incident took place.  

From the start the wands that were in place rapidly disappeared and I'd say only about a third of them are actually still in place - the missing ones leave the black bases just waiting to cause an accident.  It seems there has been no effort to replace the missing wands.

In my opinion Croydon Council have no interest in improving their roads for cyclists.  I believe incidents like this will ultimately be used by them to say "Sorry, we tried our best,  but it doesn't work" giving them an excuse to rip out the bike lanes and let the wankpanzers have totally free rein of the roads again.

Another example of their dangerous cycling "infrastructure" is quite close to where Mr Lander had his crash,  and is highlighted by CycleGaz in his video on youtube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq2Ai8XMdcA  Before being modified to the current form as in the video, the junction was only moderately hazardous.  Now I regard it as positively dangerous and I modified my route to avoid turning right there.

Every solicitor worth their money will take this case on. It's a 100% win for the cyclist.