mud on road! keep your eyes peeled!

[donnydave]

Got home today and mrs donny has had a big off due to enormous quantities of mud on the road outside a farm (no mud on road signs, just a road-wide sea of mud) , luckily no other vehicles near but plenty of people did stop to help and someone in a pick up truck brought her home.
It was so muddy that the people who stopped to help had trouble getting moving again.

Undecided as to whether its worth contacting the farm or not

 

[Roadrider48]

Genuine question....is it compulsory to have mud signs?

 

[AndyPeace]

Hope your Mrs is alright. Unless you know the land owners I'm not sure what you'll achieve. If I felt the road had been in a poor state, I'd photograph it and get in touch with the council.

 

[donnydave]

I've wondered if mud on road signs are compulsory too, if not they are certainly advisable although I doubt theres any recognised standard eg reflective for visibility at night so dont know how much help they would have been.

Its going to rain tonight so it will probably be washed away tomorrow morning. Mrs did say she thinks the pick up came from the farm but she cant remeber, although the bloke driving it was very quiet

 

[Roadrider48]

I've wondered if mud on road signs are compulsory too, if not they are certainly advisable although I doubt theres any recognised standard eg reflective for visibility at night so dont know how much help they would have been.

Its going to rain tonight so it will probably be washed away tomorrow morning. Mrs did say she thinks the pick up came from the farm but she cant remeber, although the bloke driving it was very quiet

I hope your wife is ok....

 

[screenman]

Always report it, how would you feel if the next person who fell off got hurt or worse.

Sorry but I can never understand how people can spend time writing about it on a forum, and not spend the time being more active in getting action.

I really hope the mrs is not hurt all, and that she gets over it quickly.

 

[AndyPeace]

I regularly see warning's of mud on the road, ussually with a red triangle sign warning of slippery surfaces.
Nolfork's county council site explains it best but if someone deposits mud on the road and it causes an accident they are liable. Locally my area has an easy access site to report problems, perhaps your council has similar.

 

[Alien8]

The roads around Cambridge seem to have been covered in mud for months. In virtually every case no attempt is made to clear the road (which I can sort of understand) but also no warning signs. The reason for this is of course that they don't give a toss.

Report it through CCC's website.

 

[donnydave]

Reported to 101 and on council website just now. They appear to be hot on it as it says to report large amounts of mud on A roads to the police immediately

 

[donnydave]

They've had two other reports on the same road (a1123, Haddenham, cambs) and highways agency have been sent to clear it up. Mrs has got an incident number along with the other folk who reported it.

 

[Twelve Spokes]

No mud in Londinium just mucky cars.

 

[mcshroom]

Highways Act 1980 Section 148 “If without lawful authority or excuse a person deposits anything whatsoever on a highway to the interruption of any user of the highway he is guilty of an offence”.

It's a practice that I wish was taken more seriously. I can accept that the roads can get a bit muddy in farming areas, but when it becomes a dangerous slick (like the one that is quite commonly spread across a sharp bend on a popular local cycle path) then the farmer should be made to clean up after themselves, just like everyone else would expect to.

 

[numbnuts]

All my rides are on country lanes and there is mud on the road all the time

 

[Steve Saunders]

I didn't have a off due to mud on the road (have been close a few times), but just last week a farmer had kindly spread mud and stones all over a back road ... and as I was riding along there at night (11pm) I didn't notice until I was already on it. Slowed right down, but it was too late ... "BANG" as my rear tube explodes. A sharp stone that had been stuck in the mud sliced a nice one-inch gash in the side wall of my tyre causing the tube to explode. Not exactly what you want when you're about 4 miles walk from civilisation, no phone signal, 4 degress, raining and you're wearing your good SPD-SL road shoes so walking is almost impossible.

Sods law my repair kit with tyre boot was on my other bike, so I had to improvise a tyre boot using a couple of foil backed puncture patches - and cycle standing up all the way home (11 miles, legs hurt a bit after that!!).

I can accept a little mud, but this was a 1 inch layer across the whole road ... no "mud on road" signage or attempt to clear it up by the looks of it.

 

[slowfen]

The people to contact are the police, tell them the road is unsafe, and depending on the county, they will act.
In the fens, they have had the local farmer and his manager out a 03:00 am to start cleaning a road they felt was unsafe.
The more you can get to phone the better