Drain cover Health and Safety

[RonaldWeasly]

Hi
Does anyone know if there is a regulation for the size of the slots in a drain? I had an accident last week where my front wheel went down a 4.3 cm wide slot and went right over the top and using my face and nose as a brake. What a mess, any advice welcome I am attempting to take it up with Hull City Council but getting nowhere.

 

[ColinJ]

Sorry to hear that, Ronald. GWS!

I think that you will probably be out of luck with any claim because those slots are oriented in a direction that should have been safe to ride over. Were you trying to ride over the drain cover at an angle?

There is a lethal one up here which almost caught me out once. See below, posted in another thread on the same subject...

Those slots are wheel-wreckers if you cross the pavement onto the grate, but at least the slots are perpendicular to the normal direction of travel.

On one of my local rides I encountered a potentially lethal drain cover with the slots parallel to my direction of travel... and way out into the road. (I think that the road had been widened at some point.) It is on a bend just after a downhill so I was still going quite quickly when I came to it. I was looking around at the scenery so I didn't spot it until the last moment. I only just managed to avoid it!

View attachment 789925
The slots are at least divided in two by a bar across them, but I think I would still have crashed and maybe damaged my front wheel if it had got wedged in one of the slots.

 

[fossyant]

Were you trying to turn over the grid ? There is nothing wrong with those grids and probably as safe as you get.

Generally avoid any metal road fittings as damp, metal and rubber don't mix.

Sorry, not what you wanted to hear

 

[Dogtrousers]

There was a thread on this subject recently https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/c...ways-—-drain-cover-gully-grate-damage.306527/

Hope you recover soon.

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

What about this one??

St Johns Square
St Johns
Wakefield

It might have changed by now, that’s a 2018 photograph
I remembered that l had it on my Facebook albums

As An Aside
St Johns was possibly the first 'planned suburbs' in the country, in the 1830s
http://www.wakefield-stjohns.org.uk/stjohns/stjohns/St_Johns_Church_History.html

Ings Road. to the south of the city centre, is also supposed have been one of the first 'bypasses' in the country (1820s), to prevent livestock going to the cattle-markets blocking city streets

A few more here

EDIT; Monday 9th @ 11:57
I neglected to add, from my original Facebook upload, that my '28' width tyres were an interferance fit in the gaps

 

[Drago]

Gully grates are covered by BS EN 124:2015

 

[Badger_Boom]

As An Aside
St Johns was possibly the first 'planned suburbs' in the country, in the 1830s
http://www.wakefield-stjohns.org.uk/stjohns/stjohns/St_Johns_Church_History.html

Ings Road. to the south of the city centre, is also supposed have been one of the first 'bypasses' in the country (1820s), to prevent livestock going to the cattle-markets blocking city streets.

An aside to your aside. Back in the 90s, St Johns stood in for Downing Street in the Rik Mayall comedy The New Statesman.

 

[fossyant]

This is next to my drive, and despite needing to go down past the driver's side of the car I've yet to ride over it. Those gaps will swallow a 38c tyre.

 

[presta]

There was a large manhole cover completely missing in the middle of London Road, Chipping Norton when I was there.

 

[Roadrat77]

The tram lines in Birmingham City centre are lethal. I don't ride through there but I see plenty of couriers and deliveroo types who do - no thanks.

 

[Roadrat77]

What about this one??

St Johns Square
St Johns
Wakefield

It might have changed by now, that’s a 2018 photograph
I remembered that l had it on my Facebook albums

View attachment 802114


As An Aside
St Johns was possibly the first 'planned suburbs' in the country, in the 1830s
http://www.wakefield-stjohns.org.uk/stjohns/stjohns/St_Johns_Church_History.html

Ings Road. to the south of the city centre, is also supposed have been one of the first 'bypasses' in the country (1820s), to prevent livestock going to the cattle-markets blocking city streets

A few more here

EDIT; Monday 9th @ 11:57
I neglected to add, from my original Facebook upload, that my '28' width tyres were an interferance fit in the gaps

Someone wants their arse kicking for that.

 

[ColinJ]

The tram lines in Birmingham City centre are lethal. I don't ride through there but I see plenty of couriers and deliveroo types who do - no thanks.

Tram lines anywhere are potentially lethal! I have read about cyclists dying after getting their front wheels stuck in tramlines in Sheffield, Edinburgh, London and elsewhere.

I saved @Littgull from a tramline crash on one of our forum rides out of Manchester into Cheshire. He was ahead of me chatting to another rider and I saw that he was drifting towards a tramline. My warning shout alerted him just in time!

 

[RonaldWeasly]

Sorry to hear that, Ronald. GWS!

I think that you will probably be out of luck with any claim because those slots are oriented in a direction that should have been safe to ride over. Were you trying to ride over the drain cover at an angle?

There is a lethal one up here which almost caught me out once. See below, posted in another thread on the same subject...

The drain is located at a drop kerb and I was intending to get on to a cycle track a few yards further along, so the drain slots are a hazard to those on bikes, wheel chairs and even pedestrians with walking frames or walking sticks

 

[midlife]

There was a real knack in negotiating the tram lines in Hull. Those who failed made us a few bob in the bike shop for bent wheels……

 

[presta]

The tram lines in Birmingham City centre are lethal. I don't ride through there but I see plenty of couriers and deliveroo types who do - no thanks.

My father dislocated an elbow when he got tramlined once.