00:00 An Edinburgh resident, whose wife sustained multiple injuries after cycling over a pothole
00:06 last month, has said he is shocked to see the council has not repaired the road defect
00:10 six weeks following the accident.
00:13 Edinburgh nurse and mother of two, Heather Packwood, was cycling home on Bridge Road
00:17 when a pothole caused her to be thrown from her bike, breaking several fingers and teeth,
00:22 as well as her jaw in three places.
00:26 Following the accident on June 15th, Heather's husband Steve learned that the pothole had
00:30 first been reported in August the previous year, but was deemed low risk.
00:34 But Steve said Heather's accident demonstrates the need for a repair, and by not fixing the
00:39 defect, more cyclists are being put at risk.
00:42 I just feel it's complete negligence on the part of the council.
00:46 It was one thing to not repair the hole in the months up prior to the accident, but to
00:53 have been notified that there was a serious accident that was caused by a pothole, and
00:58 somebody has been badly injured, a whole family has been affected by it, and then not to actually
01:05 do something to rectify that, putting other cyclists at risk, is in my view absolutely
01:11 appalling.
01:12 I just can't understand how the council can have not taken immediate action to try and
01:18 make sure that at least this pothole is made safe.
01:21 I mean, there are hundreds of potholes across this city that can create a risk for cyclists,
01:27 but they know this one's dangerous, and they've done nothing to fix it, and I just think that's
01:32 appalling.
01:33 I think it's negligence on their part.
01:35 Yeah, there's lots of cyclists that use this road, and I was fortunate, you know, even
01:40 though I sustained a number of fractures, I was the fortunate one.
01:45 And yeah, it's very sad to see that nothing's been done to try and protect other people.
01:52 And this is not one of the worst potholes that I've seen, you know, and I've seen it
01:57 before and yeah, this time it got me.
02:01 The pothole on Bridge Road was categorised as a priority four level defect by the council,
02:06 meaning no immediate response was required, and the pothole was considered to be of low
02:11 risk.
02:12 But Steve disagrees with this assessment.
02:14 It's absolutely not a low risk, because the facts speak for themselves, you know, there
02:20 was an accident that occurred specifically as a result of that pothole.
02:27 I've been told I can start having a soft diet, and trying to, because these joints aren't
02:33 supposed to be fixed, and they've been fixed for five weeks, so that process of shaking
02:40 all the bones up again is painful as well, so it's shaking all that up again.
02:47 Transport and Environment Convener, Councillor Scott Arthur, said he shared Steve's frustration
02:52 that the defect had not been repaired, despite the council knowing that it may have contributed
02:56 to Heather's accident, and said the pothole on Bridge Road had been assessed, but had
03:01 not been prioritised to be repaired.
03:04 Councillor Arthur added that the Transport Committee should reconsider the funding it
03:07 has allocated to dealing with reactive repairs, to allow defects like this to be repaired
03:12 more quickly.
03:13 It's had an impact upon us psychologically and emotionally, as a family.
03:19 My mother-in-law was quite affected by it when it happened, you know, it caused stress
03:24 and distress to her.
03:26 So yeah, there's been a huge impact upon us as a family.
03:30 I would like to say a huge thank you to St John's staff and the surgeon and the team
03:35 there, they've done brilliant.
03:36 Really good.
03:37 Thank you.
03:39 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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