City councils, roading contractors and gravel

[Deano]

Before ACC, if the council left a road in a dangerous state, and you crashed, you could sue the pricks. Now you can't so the lazy pricks can just ignore the problem.

Ring the cunts up and say "hey - who is responsible for the dangerous gravel littering the intersection. I just fell off my $50,000 Harley due to the slippery shit, and me lawyer wants to know"

I believe you can still take a civil case against either them or the contractor. OSH might also be interested if the Council were made aware of a hazard and did nothing about it.Use the LGOIMA to find out the conditions of contract for the road works - I doubt if the H&S documentation which is a requirment when tendering is 'commerically sensitive". I'm pretty sure it will have conditions/reference to cleaning up loose chip.

[Nasty]

Currently waitng for a reporter to ring me back....

Heya babe ... did you get pictures ... that would help .. even better pictures with a date!

[ManDownUnder]

You might have struck the answer there. How about you and a bunch of HB KBers bring your brooms, borrow some orange cones from the site further up the road, and cordon off the intersection while you sweep up the mess? Then you could send the bill to the engineer in question.

Remember to take some before & after photos so you can show him what his supposedly safe intersection looked like with loose gravel strewn all over it.

Like the approach - I personally prefer putting people on the spot... in person. For this one I'd ring the cops and have them provide suitable protection from traffic as well. They're likely to be a bit confused by it so fire off a three way conference call - traffic police, the CE in question and you - very kindly - offering to help all on the call.

Seek the most amicable outcome of course - this problem clearly needs addressing and "as he's cleaqrly quite busy and it's an obvious hazard how about you sweep while the police, or perhaps the council, the provide required protection while you do it.

It's going to be a lot faster if you had the right tools of course but brooms will do the job. Perhaps the council has a few to spare?

Be nice as hell. Those on the call will see what a pillock the council guy is being. He can only hang himself - make sure the gallows are ready and supply him with rope...

[Okey Dokey]

Keep up the good work, yungatart! I hope you get a result soon. It would make a great news story- sweeping the intersection. What a shame your paper isn't following up on it.

[Pumba]

........I state that civil engineers are often responsible for putting manhole covers on bike lines in intersections and also for installing cheesecutters on our highways to slice and dice any rider who happens to come in contact with them, so pardon me if I don't have huge amounts of respect for some C Es. At that point, he terminated our conversation.......

While I agree that ignoring the problem wont make it go away and this guy does seem like a dick, and the concil does have an obligation to keep the road safe, as a Civil Engineer myself I may not have hung up on you but I sure as hell would have stopped listening at this point.

Most Civil Engineers will design a perfect road, draiange system, bridge, etc. its only when the buracrats get hold of the design and start disagring on the basis of cost that corners get cut and minimum standards get used.

[MSTRS:Me]

While I agree that ignoring the problem wont make it go away and this guy does seem like a dick, and the concil does have an obligation to keep the road safe, as a Civil Engineer myself I may not have hung up on you but I sure as hell would have stopped listening at this point.

Most Civil Engineers will design a perfect road, draiange system, bridge, etc. its only when the buracrats get hold of the design and start disagring on the basis of cost that corners get cut and minimum standards get used.

That may be so, but in a matter of safety (even if only perceived) that dick did himself, and the organisation he was fronting, no favours by hanging up on someone who was reporting (and following up earlier report) a problem. One that is very real to motorcyclists. As often stated, it's not rocket science. Put loose stuff on a hard surface in a corner and then add essentially unstable vehicles... That prat needs to spend a little time on 2 wheels. And take a course in how to deal with people.
Incidently, YT txt'd me this am to say that the area has been swept clean. Perhaps her concerns were reflected on??

[Dean]

That may be so, but in a matter of safety (even if only perceived) that dick did himself, and the organisation he was fronting, no favours by hanging up on someone who was reporting (and following up earlier report) a problem. One that is very real to motorcyclists. As often stated, it's not rocket science. Put loose stuff on a hard surface in a corner and then add essentially unstable vehicles... That prat needs to spend a little time on 2 wheels. And take a course in how to deal with people.
Incidently, YT txt'd me this am to say that the area has been swept clean. Perhaps her concerns were reflected on??

Certainly i concurr

[yungatart]

While I agree that ignoring the problem wont make it go away and this guy does seem like a dick, and the concil does have an obligation to keep the road safe, as a Civil Engineer myself I may not have hung up on you but I sure as hell would have stopped listening at this point.

Most Civil Engineers will design a perfect road, draiange system, bridge, etc. its only when the buracrats get hold of the design and start disagring on the basis of cost that corners get cut and minimum standards get used.

Aah, this was the second phone call...I got the distinct impression that he didn't listen (he certainly didn't act) to my first phone call!
Interestingly, as Mstrs says, it was all cleaned up this morning and I spoke to the guys who had done it and thanked them. One of them said that some silly bitch had been on the phone complaining and so they had to!

Fancy that!

[Finn]

City Councils, roading contractors and gravel all have something in common. They share the same IQ.

[PirateJafa]

You might have struck the answer there. How about you and a bunch of HB KBers bring your brooms, borrow some orange cones from the site further up the road, and cordon off the intersection while you sweep up the mess? Then you could send the bill to the engineer in question.

Remember to take some before & after photos so you can show him what his supposedly safe intersection looked like with loose gravel strewn all over it.

Don't be silly.

There's no need to send him any bill.

A more logical course of action would be to unload the gravel into the foyer of the building he works at, along with a little sign "For Mr. XXX, because apparently this did not exist." or similar.

[klingon]

...
Interestingly, as Mstrs says, it was all cleaned up this morning and I spoke to the guys who had done it and thanked them. One of them said that some silly bitch had been on the phone complaining and so they had to!

Fancy that!

HA HA HA well done that tart!

Now can you come and sort out some of the roads up this way? Please?