Cyclist breaks bones after pothole left unfilled

A cyclist was left with a broken cheekbone and elbow after he hit a pothole covered with water before blacking out.

The BBC can reveal Surrey, East and West Sussex, Brighton and Kent councils paid out £4.1m in compensation to road-users over the past five years.

Crowborough resident Gianni Montoro, who was cycling in Station Road in Groombridge, said: "My front wheel never came out of that pothole, my back wheel came up and I got catapulted down to the ground."

East Sussex County Council wished Mr Montoro a speedy recovery and said they carried out a temporary repair before the incident, but could not do a permanent repair due to water on the road.

The pothole was submerged in water and had been reported to East Sussex County Council by a resident four weeks before the accident.

"I hit the ground like a potato bag," Mr Montoro said.

The father-of-two has been cycling for more than 20 years but said the incident had left him shaken.

"The pothole was left, I couldn't see it, I had no idea what was coming, I just know I couldn't swerve to protect myself," added Mr Montoro, who owns the delicatessen Arte Bianca in Tunbridge Wells.

He said: "If any other cyclists had gone the same way that morning they would have had the same destiny as mine. No chance."

The pothole was repaired a few days after the accident.

Groombridge resident Sarah Andrews said she reported the pothole on the Fix My Street App.

She said the council came out and marked the pothole to be fixed but it was not filled in.

Ms Andrews added: "The pothole was bad and was getting progressively worse.

"It was bigger than my foot and I'm a size five, the water was eventually up to my ankle."

Ms Andrews said residents had put a traffic cone in the pothole to alert drivers and cyclists, but the cone got damaged.

"Why didn't the council put up a barrier or cordon it off so people knew it was there?" she added.

Duncan Dollimore, from charity Cycling UK, said potholes could be "potentially life-changing" to cyclists.

Every year 40 cyclists are seriously injured from potholes and between two and three die, Mr Dollimore says.

He added: "It puts people off cycling which has massive health, environmental and wellbeing benefits so we should be doing more to make sure this isn't a problem."

Additional reporting by Alex Bish.

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