Worker repaired pothole three miles away instead of one that then caused triathlete’s death

Potholes need to be taken more seriously by councils in general. They have rules based on size/depth/danger and location which dictate how long they have to fix said potholes (I don't really have an issue with this) however, i'm pretty sure these rules were made with cars in mind. Try avoiding them on a bike with traffic. My commute takes me down two specific roads where I have to go pretty central into the lane and it makes me nervous despite being a confident cyclist. I'm waiting for the day that  a car gets really angry with me and tries to overtake but causes an accident.

Do all councils have different methods of tracking? Why does the coroner only address this council, would it be better to come up with a good system that could then be used nationwide to prevent this happening elsewhere? 

So there's no follow up inspection to check the work has been done satisfactorily? by either balfour or the council? They're taking it on trust that the work has been done correctly by people who can't even find a pot hole with 2 maps, photos and a gps coordinate? no wonder half of them need repairing again within a couple of months.

I can understand not following up every minor pothole, but something that has been inspected several times and is clearly a danger should be checked and not just assumed to be adequate.

Is this not something that one of the contractors should lose their contract over? What level of negligence do they need to show for them to actually be deemed incapable of fulfilling the terms of their contract? If it was the private sector there'd be liquidated damages sought at the very least if not termination of the contract.

Did not the contractors and probably Balfour Beatty commit a fraud by invoicing for something they didn't do?
"Instead of carrying out the correct repair, the person instead filled in a completely pothole on a road three miles away. They amended the paperwork to state the different location but did not draw this to anyone’s attention.
Based on the information sent to them, both Balfour Beatty and Warwickshire County Council believed that the Holt Road pothole had been filled."

Ah, Balfour Beatty, the company who have signs warning PEDESTRIANS not to walk near their Fiesta-sized vans.

Quote:

Instead of carrying out the correct repair, the person instead filled in a completely pothole on a road three miles away. They amended the paperwork to state the different location but did not draw this to anyone’s attention.

Based on the information sent to them, both Balfour Beatty and Warwickshire County Council believed that the Holt Road pothole had been filled. The error was not picked up until after Vanloo’s death.

That's not an error.

The incompetence of the contractor is so staggering that I would have thought that company should be charged with corporate manslaughter.

They had all the information on exactly where the pothole was but chose to try to identify its location with a Sat Nav of all things!

Presumably this was all down to cost-cutting.

The worrying thing is this can't be the only time they've done this, so there are probably many other dangerous unrepaired potholes out there.

The council should instigate a full enquiry and possibly strip them of their contract, but somehow I doubt very much if they will.

After all to the them the deceased is "just a cyclist".  They'd probably take more action if someone had written of their Porsche as a result of it.

Disgusting dereliction of duty to keep people safe and in clear breach of the law, no doubt that people will shrug shoulders and same old will continue.

Seems the asst coronor wasn't interested in actually apportioning blame nor admonishing the council, quelle surprise!