A CORONER has warned that more lives could be lost unless action is taken after a woman was “catapulted” from her bicycle when it hit a pothole that a council had “failed” to fix.

On March 29, 2021, Jennifer Dyer died after she collided with a van on the B2188 near Groombridge.

Assistant coroner James Healy-Pratt said the 36-year-old was “catapulted” from her bicycle when it hit a pothole, which was camouflaged by “dappled sunlight and tree branch shadows”.

He said the pothole was 0.45m by 0.80m at its widest and broadest, and 5.8cm at its deepest point and that the pothole “evidenced a history of failed repairs since late 2019, with numerous concerns being raised about the continuing danger that it posed to road users, especially motorbikes and bicycles”.

The Sussex Police forensic reconstruction report concluded that it was “highly likely” that the collision was because of the defect to the road, and the pothole specifically.

Mr Healy-Pratt's investigation found that the death of Ms Dyer “was avoidable” and that East Sussex County Council should review how it categorises potholes for mending.

“This young lady and mother lost her life due to a collision between her bicycle and a van,” wrote Mr Healy-Pratt in his prevention of future deaths report.

“That collision was solely and proximately caused by a defective pothole, 58mm deep, in the road surface of the B2188, Cherry, Gardens Hill, Groombridge. Her death was avoidable.”

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The report states the particular pothole fell within the category LOW for risk and remedial works within the East Sussex Highway asset inspection manual.

The definition for this category is “greater than 40mm and less than 59mm deep and at least 300mm in all directions”.

“Clearly, this pothole was the proximate cause of the death of a young woman, and the categorisation of potholes in East Sussex requires significant review, to prevent future avoidable deaths within the county,” wrote Mr Healy-Pratt.

East Sussex County Council said that the pothole was repaired the same day and the road was reinspected for other potholes.

And it has since introduced “an enhanced” three risk based approach to its safety inspection regimes which “allows for a more flexible approach to determining risk for all road users and defect response times”.

The council’s spokesman said this enables the inspector to change the categorisation of a pothole to include potholes for repair that do not meet the lowest category, if required, or to change the category of a pothole to a medium or high risk following an onsite risk assessment that now also considers location and road usage, in addition to size and depth.

“Whilst this process was not in place at the time the pothole in this incident was identified and categorised, by introducing this new process, the council believes that a specific review of the pothole categories is not required,” said the spokesman.

The council committed to review the effectiveness of the new system and review how it would have affected Ms Dyer’s case.

It also said it would carry out further research into the cycleway hierarchy and cycle route maintenance in line with “best practice and neighbouring authorities”.

“The council is committed to improving communication with road users and improving the safety of the roads,” said the spokesman.

“The death of Jennifer Dyer is a tragic loss and the council offer its sincere condolences to Ms Dyer’s family.”