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Annexure "B3"
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Message----- Lorraine – (02)8849.2406 I refer to my ‘phone call to you an hour ago when I mentioned that Kevin Burke has been a close friend since our school days. Kevin suggested that I talk to Neil Forrest. However, it may be that someone else in RTA is better placed to hopefully assist me, because my enquiry is of a technical nature and falls with a topic close to our Minister for Health & Ageing, namely Preventive Health to reduce health costs. I am an avid pushbike rider and voluntarily maintain two bicycling websites: My enquiry relates to the optimum treatment of many of the 23,000 remaining timber bridges in Australia, many of which have longitudinal planks and gaps >25mm wide - some have caused several serious cycling accidents, extending as far as paraplegia and death. My research suggests that approx 88% of these 23,000 remaining timber bridges are controlled by local councils. Seemingly, the dangers in some of the worst gaps could be substantially reduced by hammering in hard rubber or timber wedges and shims, thereby materially diminishing the incidence of serious injury. I do not believe that hard rubber or timber wedges could be wedged into all such gaps. However, that could be a cost-effective treatment for a lot of dangerous timber bridges, particularly if they do not carry large trucks such as the short bridge 5km West of Wisemans Ferry on River Rd controlled by Baulkham Hills Shire Council. River Rd has two unsealed sections and attracts no heavy traffic, in fact apart from cyclists, very little traffic at all because of a parallel main road – see above 2 photos of the gaps. Other treatments could possibly be to:
> insert - > lay down a rubber mat or layer of asphalt or layer of concrete - a long rubber mat/conveyer belt has successfully been laid down on a long plank bridge on the Tumut Plains (near Snowy Mountain Highway) which has materially diminished the legendary danger on that bridge. The reason that I hope RTA can assist me, or point me towards someone in Australian Local Government Association etc, with such technical knowledge is that Liability of Public Authority (a page on my www.Muggaccinos.com website) explains my understanding that Section 45 “Special non-feasance protection for roads authorities” (for NSW) seems to - (A) require a roads authority to carry out road work to remove or reduce a particular risk once the roads authority becomes aware of such particular risk; (B) deem that if the roads authority does not so remove or reduce such particular risk and that particular risk materialises then the roads authority is liable for damages from harm suffered; and (C) require the courts to take into account the financial and other resources that are reasonably available to the roads authority for the purpose of exercising those functions. A worst case scenario could evidence a cyclist who is for example a surgeon or dentist (ie. earning a high salary and requires his physical skills as well as mental capabilities), with financial obligations to support his wife and their 3 young children, who becomes a paraplegic due to his wheel getting caught in a gap in a timber bridge in NSW and plummeting into the bridge head first. Seemingly, such a cyclist in NSW could rely on the above Section 45 to litigate the roads authority responsible for the bridge which caught his wheel, if the cyclist’s legal counsel was able to establish that the NSW roads authority was aware of such particular risk due to – (I.) being made aware by a concerned third party who subsequently alerted the injured cyclist; or (II.) through the roads authority’s own due diligence inspections. Hence, in light of the apparently onerous obligation for roads authorities to reduce a risk, upon becoming aware of it, or at least to prioritise remedial treatment which can stand up to scrutiny in a court of law, does RTA have any technical information to reduce the risk of a cyclist’s wheel becoming caught in gaps between longitudinal planks. Or is RTA able to refer me to someone with engineering expertise who has a particular interest in this problem which could not only cause fatalities and paraplegia, but could render the relevant roads authority liable for damages from harm suffered. If RTA hasn’t thoroughly researched such cost-effective treatments, and locals councils haven’t either, I may be able to co-opt the enthusiasm and skills of a few retired engineers (who are cyclists) to produce a thorough report. Prior to approaching you I have investigated the following: * Timber bridge management strategy dated January 2002 on NSW RTA’s website * Report on Cyclists Deaths - July 2006 * Qld Govt Cycle Infrastructure Maintenance NB: The 4th above attachment details a serious cycling accident when a friend, Dr Ann Collins, fell off a timber bridge at Coffs Harbour on 10 April this year after her wheel caught in between two timber planks. Cheers Phil Johnston |
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