Organised rides (copied here by Admin from feedback thread)

[dellzeqq]

Stop trying to destroy the simple pleasure of cycling with friends by scaremongering.

Nobody's doing that. In the end, anybody who organises a ride will make their own mind up.

I'd be VERY careful of the legal implicatons of doing this if you publish it.
Word it VERY carefully.

The CTC has an guidance sheet on the subject - we may just post a link to that.

 

[asterix]

For what exactly would one sue a ride organiser?

Are the riders not responsible for their own actions on the road?

If another road user does something stupid that endangers a rider or vice versas, is that the ride organiser's responsibility? If so, why?

It does sound to me as if we are being spooked!

The CTC has an guidance sheet on the subject - we may just post a link to that.

Wouldn't posting such a link make you an accessory?

 

[dodgy]

The men with clipboards want us to be scared

 

[dellzeqq]

Nobody's got a clipboard, and nobody wants you to be scared. You make your own choices.

Asterix. A little while ago a club that is not a million miles from my own took to a cycle path, and one of the riders to the rear of the group collided with a bollard (doncha just love those Sustrans routes) splitting her kneecap. Now the truth is that the club had been using this route for years, and the bollards had just sort of become part of the scenery. What should have happened is that the front person should have shouted 'bollard', and the following riders should have repeated the call. If a club does that kind of thing as a matter of course, all well and good, but if not (for instance if there are a number of new riders) there should have been a few words said before the ride.

The rider did not sue, or even think of doing so, despite having to take a ten weeks (iirc) of work. But that, I think, is good fortune.

 

[asterix]

Fair comment.

So far this year around York I have encountered more leisure cyclists than ever before and obviously very many are new cyclists. Some don't even know which side to pass an oncoming cyclist on a cycle track - kind of like pedestrians with wheels.

 

[dellzeqq]

http://www.ctc.org.uk/resources/Go_Biking_with_CTC/Rideleaderguide.pdf

not too onerous. As ever three sentences are employed where one would do. And beards, are, apparently mandatory. Along with mudguards. My own DA has asked me to flesh this out, and, simultaneously, shorten it.

 

[Amanda P]

Could one or more of our learned friends tell us whether some form of disclaimer would be valid?

If for example, one "organised" a ride via CC, could one post some form words to the effect that "by coming on this ride, you agree that you are entirely responsible for your own safety, and that the leader accepts no responsibility or liability for anything whatsoever"?

I ask because one frequently sees similar disclaimers in all sorts of places, although we're often told that they have no legal standing.

 

[PaulB]

I was led to believe that anyone who can be seen as a group leader has a de-facto duty of care to everyone else in the group. I once climbed a mountain in the Dolomites with a guy I'd first met several years previously when he'd guided me up another mountain as part of an organised group. On our subsequent climb as equals, he told me that as he'd issued the invitation to this climb, had I come to grief, he would have been liable to be sued under the law. He'd had this pointed out to him quite forcibly when he'd done his previous guiding job in the area.

 

[dellzeqq]

I was led to believe that anyone who can be seen as a group leader has a de-facto duty of care to everyone else in the group.

the CTC publication uses the words 'duty of care'.

What I don't know is if that duty of care could be construed as an obligation not to be negligent.

 

[PaulB]

What I don't know is if that duty of care could be construed as an obligation not to be negligent.

I'd be worried that some scheister lawyer would want to test it out in a court.

 

[stevevw]

Blimey if I had read this before Saturdays ride it would not have gone ahead. I had thought about my own third party cover (CTC) but it never occurred to me that I could be liable for other people’s actions. Saturdays ride thankfully went off without incident. Had it gone ahead when first scheduled on the 3rd of January when we had a lot of ice it may have been a different story, the last Essex ride was held in cold conditions with one patch of ice that nearly had a rider down. It was my decision to attend this ride and I had accessed the situation on the day at the start of the ride and was my decision to go, if I had had an accident well that would have been down to me. But if the worse had happened to me I am sure that my wife’s solicitor would have advised her of the likelihood of some sort of compensation claim. Scary.

I think some cover will be needed in future or at least some sort of disclaimer if that is legal?

 

[dellzeqq]

steve - take a look at my post at #17 above.

 

[stevevw]

And then there is a further possibility. Set CC up as a nationwide member group of the CTC, with its own Rides Leaders list. The CTC has cottoned on to the idea that people don't organise their social lives the way they did twenty years ago. CC has, in effect, a rides list that is published. It doesn't need to have officers and all that mullarkey if it simply attaches itself to an established group. The corollary would be that you'd expect some kind of recognition from the CTC which does send out e-mails to 20,000 people every week.

If this is possible should it not be done asap?

 

[Pottsy]

I find all this a bit depressing, I just want to meet a few folks and go for a bike ride.

 

[dodgy]

This is grim.