I am after peoples opinion on who is at fault. So I hit this construction sign on my morning commute to work.
I Hit a Sign While Commuting
Comments
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The sign would probably have a good lawyer, because it's government backed.
Government actually have a clause now that they aren't liable for signs injuries.
Did you ask God for a sign?
At least you weren't taken by a crocodile. Things could be worse.
HaHa this is hilarious. Please don't ever travel to Asia. There can be cavernous potholes big enough to park a truck in that barely even have half a munted squashed faded traffic cone in front of it. A street sign protruding an inch or two? Seriously?
So that's the new standard now? Another countries norm?
'Please don't ever travel to Asia. There can be cavernous potholes'
I fell in one of those - walking down an unlit street in the dark, a car came towards us, and my companion (no longer) pushed me without thinking to move away from the oncoming car
and in the pitch-black and blinded by the car headlights, I found myself falling into the unseen
landed about 1200mm down in a concrete storm drain, having just grazed my R temple - bleeding lightly - on the sharp edge of the box drain - had I been 10mm further over it probably would have smashed my skull and could have killed me
the impact on an unseen base tore my knee cartilage - resulting in me limping for 6 weeks, permanent knee pain problems, and a much-increased risk of arthritis in older age.
there was no sign there. Just a black hole. And my life health prospects permanently changed.
Shoulda gone to Specsavers…
I blame bikies
Need a poll option for both at fault.
Not sure what the rules are like in Tas but in Vic you’re not supposed to have any empty areas in those signs, at least that’s what is taught at all the traffic control courses I have had to do.
Plus the most important message (only footpath closed in tis scenario) should be positioned on the right, closest to the road.
So I hit this construction sign on my morning commute to work.
OP better watch out, there is a fence there too!
The way this country treats people who commute on bicycles is shameful. Note I'm NOT talking about "cyclists" or "MAMILS" or annoying people like that - but the normal humble people who are actually doing a solid for the whole of society AND the environment AND the health system by taking cars off the congested roads to reduce traffic and reducing greenhouse gas emissions and reducing obesity in society by riding a push bike. And they are treated like 3rd class citizens. Roads for motor vehicles ARE NOT SAFE for cyclists. Amsterdam (the coolest city in the world) has already shown us the template for solving the urban transportation problem. All we have to do is implement the solution. That's it. Just monkey see monkey do. What's the hold up?
Yeah I love it, Rain or Shine, I get to work and home quicker than I did driving. Win-Win for me, just clocked over 5,000km in two years.
'the normal humble people who are actually doing a solid'
I wish people would pick those up, and not leave them on our footpath !
Signs don't kill people. People with signs kill.. people, without signs..
Not sure where I was going with that
Did your handlebar knock out a square from the sign?
Definitely a sign of things to come.
yes - I'm afraid it's a sign of the times …
I use to commute on a CX bike in urban areas.
Be ready to hop over many obstacles during your ride, including signs and kids.Did you have a gopro? Can you load it here so we can watch?
Life is demanding
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Should have gone to Specsavers.
I work in the traffic industry, council would have an issue with this setup, contrary to a lot of the comments this would be hard to see as a rider and shouldn't be set up like this.
Yeah it wasn't until I got to work, I decided to walk back and look at what had happened because I literally had no understanding of how I fell off. The black sign frame blended and all I saw was footpath when riding.
'all I saw was footpath when riding'
had to read that twice - at first glance I thought it read - 'all I saw was sociopath when riding'
Yeh. Like most comment sections on the internet people have no fking idea. Just like the moron that set those signs up. 😂 I'm an asphalter.
ozbargain is unique (maybe because of people's anonymity) where it's always OP's fault.
Can’t fault an ass…
Exactly.
Perfect example of why majority votes = / = correct
Everyone thinks they're smarter and they'd see it, not realising the whole system has been set up to minimise hazards like this and have a predictable road environment. Anything that adds to mental load is minimised, even if the sign frame was bright red this wouldn't be good, but a stationary black pole at 6am has very little chance of being seen
That’s unsafe placement protruding like that.
Common sense as a rider would be to proceed with extreme caution around construction zones.
What’s the law on riding on footpaths these days?
Apparently tassie is fine with it.
Did you swap insurance information with the sign? If you have compo, leave it with your insurance to do the fighting
How tall is the sign / low is your bike, if you managed to clip it with your handlebars? And resting on the fence support so not really protruding at the base, at least. Still, glad you weren't injured, and it looks like the sign is intact.
Hey OP, I hope your ok.
I know your looking for opinions and I can appreciate the "autopilot" mindset on your commute route. Everyone gets like that with typical patterns of behaviour.
It looks like your taking personal responsibility and not just blaming the sign. Way to be a non typical 21st century bro/bra!
Absolutely no idea about who's as fault here but if you didn't see that while riding I'm confident you either didn't have a bright enough light on your bike, were going too fast for the conditions, or you were riding on autopilot.
The last point is the riskiest, I cycle about 15k to work most days on a pretty shitty stretch of roads and awareness is the absolute most important thing - I took my eyes off the bicycle lane for a moment a couple of weeks ago and went over a pothole wrecking my rim.Ha! Oh man. You’re joking/looking for reactions aren’t you? Please lord.
Maybe lookup next time instead of at your strava. It's not that hard to avoid a stationary sign.
Was there a sign at the other end of the closed section of footpath you were riding on?
Nah, It was for a side street footpath.
Could have been worse - I hated people who parked caravans on the road when it was raining and I was heading into a headwind…
May be the sign was placed in an appropriate location before but got knocked over by wind or anything and someone just put it back like that?
Without getting the story from the sign's side, how can we say who's fault was it?You can just see the cable tie to the fence.
I think bit of bad luck from your road awareness meter :D. I would however report it as it as a potential hazard through snapsendsolve.
Well you shouldn't be driving on the footpath
Why not?, it's perfectly legal in Tassie…
Was there a sign at the other end of the temporary fence saying the footpath was closed? If so then you should not be there. If the sign was not there you would have hit the yellow base of the fence anyway. If it is in Victoria an adult is not allowed to ride on the footpath unless they are accompanying a minor riding on the footpath.
OP mentioned it up the page, the footpath was closed "AHEAD", not on that part… and here in Tassie everyone is allowed to ride on the footpaths, generally in most areas there's not many pedestrians using them so it's not an issue for bikes to use them, and it's often a lot safer than being on our narrow crappy roads ….
I blame the evil angels of our nature. How dare they? How dare they blind me into colliding into visible and bright signs?
It happened at 6am in the morning which is total darkness at this time of year in Tassie, he went back later to take the photo when it was lighter.. His handlebar hit the back side of the black frame, I wouldn't call it "visible and bright", it probably should have had some reflective tape on the frame…
The sign was poorly positioned but I think the OP needs to chalk it up to "shit happens" (which he seems to be doing)… Early morning, low light, auto-pilot, an unexpected obstacle, shit happens, it's all part of riding a motorbike or bicycle, expect the unexpected… I also don't think he deserves the amount of criticism he's receiving…
OK I understand your point. OP should have put it to "shit happens" instead of a poll. But hey
Probably a hot take, but people saying it is the commuters fault have NFI.
That is a massive safety hazard, black border, no high vis / yellow on the parts sticking out besides the small part at the very bottom, but even then its just plain yellow.
The "footpath closed" part should be shifted to the end of the sign thats sticking out at the very least.
That is exactly what they did.
Pushed the "footpath closed" to the end and moved the entire sign back flush with the fence.
Looking again:
https://imgur.com/p2WqMjgBetween the black tar lines on the footpath and shadows, it's no surprise you didn't see the black frame in the 6am darkness…
The tar lines up perfectly! Only seeing that now, I bet that was it…
Perfect that makes sense.
No benefit to having it sticking out and it turned it into a hazard.
Whoever is responsible for the initial placement I hope received a solid safety lecturing.
There’s an ace of base song in this…
I hit a sign, and it opened up my eyes, I hit a sign
Terrible OHS on that sign placement. I agree it is a hazard.
sign's fault, but unless you completely ruined yourself medically, not worth suing over
Yeah thankfully I'm fine, just my worldy posession got ruined.
yeah that black steel border sticking out like that - not nice
definitely can be argued the builder / vicariously the council is liable
Cyclist now complaining about signage. Sorry no sympathy. Go slower next time.
The builder through his site fencing contractor has omitted the fundamental requirement of installing, what is known as a 'handrail'. https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Ftemporary…
Refer: https://temporaryfencing.com.au/temporary-fencing/temporary-… If you intend to put up temp fences in high traffic or pedestrian areas, installing handrails on your panels is highly recommended. Handrails can help to make the area around your panels safer, minimise the likelihood of accidents and make the vicinity much easier to navigate. In particular, handrails can alleviate the danger of pedestrians tripping over the bases of your temporary fences.
I know for a fact that the Builder in this case would be held more around 80%+ contributorily negligent. There are plenty of legal cases on this matter in QLD!
The site fence handrails around the Brisbane CBD that I see have even a reflective bright tape around it too!
Are you ok? Hope you didn't sustain any serious injuries.
I moved to Germany last year. One thing I love is that people are required to take responsibility for their own actions. Everyone must have liability insurance for exactly this reason.
Correct. The fence installer was negligent and should have liability insurance and as such should pay up for medical expenses and any damage suffered to OP.
In Germany they would say „watch where you’re going“
NZ is much the same I believe… In a case like this the person responsible for the sign could be prosecuted under the OH&S laws, but the victim cant profit out of it…
here's what can happen when riders don't pay attention to what's in front of them -
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11014323/Furious-cy…Here's what can happen when runners don't pay attention to what's in front of them:
https://aims-worldrunning.org/articles/1453-runner-collides-…When people don't pay attention to what they're doing, they can cause serious injuries or death. It doesn't matter if they're driving, riding a motorcycle, pushbike, or running.
Update: if anyone cares, insurance company offered payout for my bike, thanks for people's input
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Straight to the high court. It's the vibe.