You’re out for a ride on the bike on country roads and your worst nightmare as you round a bend, muck is spread across the road.
Surviving the lack of grip, handle bars going from lock to lock, sideways and thisways, backend stepping out in an all mighty slide, hopefully you ride on and you report the muck on the road.
However was anything ever done about it, was the muck cleaned up, were those responsible ever face anything for trailing muck all over the road?
Well the BBC in Northern Ireland are reporting that a farmer has been fined for allowing muck from his fields to be dragged onto roads in the Portrush area.
The BBC report says that this is one of the first cases of its kind to come before the courts.
Fining the farmer £500, District Judge Richard Wilson said the roads were in a dangerous position and had been left like that for some time while the defendant was reluctant to do anything about it.
Although the farmers lawyer said the defendant had tried to clean up the road using a slurry tanker filled with water but this attempt was unsuccessful.
Coleraine farmer fined for mucky Portrush road
11 May 2012
Original Source: Click Here
A farmer has been fined for allowing muck from his fields to be dragged onto roads in the Portrush area.
It is one of the first cases of its kind to come before the court.
Norman McCollum, 51, of Islandtasserty Road, Coleraine, admitted causing mud and muck to be deposited on a road causing or be likely to cause an obstruction or danger.
The offences happened on the Atlantic Road and on the Coleraine and Agherton Roads, Portrush, on 7 November 2011.
A prosecutor said police received complaints from road users that the road was dangerous to drive on because of mud.
The mud was brought onto the road by agricultural vehicles owned by contractors working on behalf of McCollum, the prosecutor said.
The court was told white lines and cat’s eye reflectors were obscured by mud which also affected the steering and traction of a police vehicle.
A lawyer for McCollum said an “unfortunate combination” of large agricultural machinery and November weather had caused the situation.
He said his client had employed contractors to cut maize and because of the weather there was pressure to bring the crop in.
The lawyer said the defendant had tried to clean up the road using a slurry tanker filled with water but this attempt was unsuccessful.
District Judge Richard Wilson said the roads were in a dangerous position and had been left like that for some time while the defendant was reluctant to do anything about it.
The judge fined McCollum £500.
Original Source: Click Here
All Northern Irish motorcyclists have the right to clean roads!
Join this Facebook campaign and support the pursuit to have our local government sit up and take notice of the disgraceful state of our roads….we are talking about everything from potholes to farmers trailing mud all over the B-roads.
We pay our Road Tax just like everyone else and have the right to clean, safe roads!
Please feel free to send us any photos of the poor road conditions or post them yourself on the wall and we will make sure they go to the right place.
Fix A Road – Report A Fault!
As motorcyclists we know that we are more susceptible to defective road surfaces.
It’s not rocket science, poor road design and maintenance can contribute to motorcycle crashes, injuries, and fatalities.
You can now fill in our On-line Report Survey to help us to built a picture of the hazards motorcyclists face on the roads in Northern Ireland.
You can report a road fault to the Roads Services through their website.
Fill in as many of the details as possible on the form to help Roads Services to accurately locate the problem.
Report damaged manhole covers – debris on the road – mud on road – pothole in road – traffic signal not working and more.
Diesel spillages are a significant danger for motorcyclists our advice is to report these to the PSNI.
Information – Click Here
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Guidance has been given to farmers by way of the NFUonline .com
Its a problem all over the mainland. Whilst many complain about cow shit its basically the agri farms that are worse.
at least with cow muck u can expect it every day and at regular times all the year round and it generally doesnt require or involve any farm vehicles.
With agri farming crops they have every vehicle under the sun out and with trailers, bloody great big ones with all sorts of dangerous spikes and disk blades, enough to cut up motorcyclists into several pieces, i know of one that was decapitated by such a blade. also they are out as early in the year as possible to prepare land and cover it with shit [ manure] and then seed it and then de weed and spray it and then reap it later on in the summer and they work round the clock even into night time with tractors going from field to field.
If that isnt all they just drop whatever is on their wheels onto the tarmac and put out a poor hand written notice warning of mud, one which inevitably falls over or is washed away by the next downpoor.
When complained about the police or local authorities do shit all about it, lets face it as far as they are concerned we deserve all the pain ,suffering and death we can get. one less KSI statistic.for the future.
It appears that the police did suffer by what the farmer did not do and so got taken to court.
Lets hope more are prosecuted for their outright beligerance.
Nice one.
As a footnote… beware when the crops are being harvested JULY/AUG/SEPT. havesting creats a lot of fine dust and broken stems and chaff to fall on the road, This is lethal as it creats a barrier between the road tarmack and your tyres. Its very much like ice. Also if not protecting the eyes it can blind you when blown by the wind.
So if any farm nearby is harvesting be very, very carefull it can put u off the road and into hospital.
You have been warned.
Put it in the Highway Code
Put it on your local website.
put it everywhere.
Its not a very well known fact and persons have come to grief and the police have put it down to rider error.
please make sure all your friends know about it.
On the lighter side, i was down a country lane the other day and a farmer had put up a notice saying.’BULLS BEWARE…..KEEP OUT. Now i never new that bulls could read, did u.!!!!!!