Cyclist, 83, died after falling on road ‘known for potholes’
INQUEST HEARS OF RESIDENTS’ COMPLAINTS ABOUT SITE WHERE MAN ‘FLEW OVER HANDLEBARS’
A PENSIONER died after falling from his bicycle and landing on his head on a road ‘notorious’ for potholes, an inquest heard.
Roger Hamer, 83, from Walmersley in Bury, was left unconscious after ‘flying over the handlebars as though he had hit something’.
Following the accident on Bury New Road, in Ramsbottom, he was taken to Salford Royal Hospital, where he died a month later.
Mr Hamer, who had not been wearing a helmet, suffered several skull fractures. The cause of death was given as a severe brain injury.
An inquest into his death heard that residents frequently complained about the state of the road and the number of potholes.
Although no witnesses saw what caused the crash, it happened at the site of a road defect previously reported to the council by Helen Wesolowski, who lived nearby.
She estimated it to be the size of a dinner plate and 8cm deep. Mrs Wesolowski had reported it two weeks before the accident, which happened on March 5 last year.
A worker came the next day and said it would be repaired, but it had not been by the time of the accident, the inquest heard.
Mrs Wesolowski said a council worker came and ‘half filled the pothole’ after Mr Hamer’s fall.
Nurse Susan Simpson saw Mr Hamer, of Manchester Road, come ‘flying over the handlebars’ and hit the road before she rushed to help him.
She said: “There was nothing else [he could have hit] apart from the pothole.
“It was about a yard from where he landed.”
Mr Hamer had been cycling to the shops ahead of a family meal the following day.
His daughter Ruth Topping said: “He was an active man and very, very caring. Everyone knew dad and he was very popular. He was very active.”
She said that they had regularly discussed the amount of potholes on the roads and that the hospital had told her that her dad would still have died even if he had have been wearing a helmet.
Representing Bury council, solicitor Mark Bradley said the pothole was actually around 2cm deep.
Highways inspector Graham O’Connor told the inquest that only potholes 4cm or more deep were considered ‘actionable’ by the town hall.
The court heard that Bury New Road was inspected on a monthly basis and a recent visit had found no actionable defects on the road.
Assistant Coroner Peter Sigee told a jury at North Manchester Coroners Court: “The main issues are likely to be the circumstances of Mr Hamer’s fall from the bike, the condition of that part of the road at the time and whether the condition of the road was causative of his fall.”
The inquest continues.