A cyclist is suing Bianchi, the Italian bike brand, for just over €1.1 million - £1 million sterling – for injuries he says he sustained in a horrific crash after his forks snapped in a sportive.
Donald O’Driscoll, a 55-year-old father of three and
leisure cyclist, suffered a litany of serious injuries when he crashed at Wales
Velothon back in 2015.
London’s High Court was told that Bianchi does not
dispute liability but it is disputing the size of the financial claim being
made.
Mr Donald said he was riding at about 20 miles per hour
in the sportive when the forks cracked on his £800 Bianchi Via Nirone 7 bike.
He said the result of both forks having “fractured in
half” was that he was sent crashing into a wooden post and was knocked out.
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The nuclear engineer from Cardiff, Wales, said he suffered a blunt injury to the head which he says caused a "subtle closed brain injury", adding he was still feeling the impact of the damage done to his head.
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Furthermore, the court was told the leisure cyclist also
fractured his shoulder in the fall, suffered cracked ribs and lung damage.
He was taken to hospital where he remained for 18 days
and returned to work on a part-time basis in October, 2015, after his crash in
June of that year.
He says as well as continuing to suffer from the head injury, he also still feels pain and has PTSD.
The court was told he bought the bike on a cycle to work
scheme about a year before the crash. It was serviced in November, 2014, before
it was stored in Mr O’Driscoll’s garage until March, 2015, when he used it
again.
He also said that two weeks before Velothon Wales he had
a partial service carried out on the bike and the tyres were changed.
Mr O’Driscoll’s lawyers argued the bike was relatively new, was never abused in any way and was also well maintained. A trial on the case is due to go ahead though no date was set by the London High Court.
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