Anatomy of a Fall

You can tell a cycling blipper a mile off. Fall on ice and the first thing he does is check the bike is okay; second thing he does is take a photo of the aftermath. Only after that is done does he tend to his own injuries. The two marks to the right are where the wheels hit the rut at almost the same instant and shot to my left. The big mark just behind the bars is where I came down with a thump and slid, exposing the ice underneath.

You may remember this blip about icy cyclepaths. I don't imagine that every cyclepath could be treated in this weather, but there are some major routes in Edinburgh that are actually really good and very useful, and brilliant for persuading people to take their bikes. This route the past couple of days has been made up of rutted ice. Fine (ish - okay, not very but...) when you can see it, but add a thin layer of wet snow on top and you can't see where they are, while your tyre cuts straight through to the ice.

And so it was that I found myself on my backside twice. Sheer luck really, to hit the ruts so perfectly, but there you go. I'm going to blame ninja mountain bike skillz for saving me from major injury (just a bashed knee and elbow). The bent mudguard stays and marks on my bag are more irritating.

I actually contacted the Council about the paths after the incident linked above, and mentioned that they could be opening themselves up to claims for injuries. Well...

May I unveil the latest in my arsenal for getting the council to treat main cyclepaths - an invoice relating to personal injury and damage to property.

The invoice method is something I've heard of before. It has to be processed, or simply will be processed as a matter of course, so appears on a system as a debt, which means it then has to be dealt with. Make it big enough so that it can't be ignored, but don't go daft and make it look ridiculous.

Damages for loss of enjoyment (as mentioned in the invoice, I've got an event I'm supposed to be riding on Sunday and my knee really is aching) is an established principle, and I'm about to don my lawyer's hat even more and do some reading up on various bits of legislation regarding their duty of care and liability?

EDIT: Just thought, remember this as well? (different bike mind you)