A father is suing a council after shattering his wrist when he was catapulted off his bicycle by a road ‘safety measure’.

Richard Lander was cycling down a busy road in Croydon, south London when he came out of the cycle lane to overtake a bus which had pulled into a stop at around 4:45pm on November 3.

The father-of-two says he didn’t see a black ‘base’ on Brighton Road, designed to segregate cycles from other vehicles, and was catapulted over the handlebars, hitting the ground so hard he broke his wrist.

Six weeks later, and after doctors put a metal plate in his arm, the 63-year-old IT project manager says he is still in constant pain and does not know when or if he will be able to cycle again.

Mr Lander has since complained to Croydon Council about the road safety measures and has instructed lawyers to take legal action in a bid to highlight the issue and get the council to make changes.

‘When you have an impact like that, it knocks you silly and I was in incredible pain. I’m just thankful for the passers-by who stopped to help me up out of the road, without whom it could have been a lot worse,’ he said.

‘I was covered in bruises and badly injured my coccyx, but it was my wrist that bore the brunt. It’s my dominant left hand so it’s affected my ability to do just about everything, from holding a cup of tea to dressing myself. 

‘I can’t work, I can’t drive and I think this is the longest in 60 years that I’ve gone without cycling.

‘It’s also the first accident I’ve had, which I believe shouldn’t have happened in the first place, and so now I just want to make sure that the same thing doesn’t happen to anyone else.’

Mr Lander says the bases were originally installed with clearly visible wands before a decision was made to remove most of them. 

Although the bases and their reflective markings were still there, he says the latter are little more than stickers which could easily be damaged by cars. 

He claimed there were no such stickers on the night of his incident that the lights on his bicycle would have picked out.

He added: ‘I was wearing a helmet, as I always do, a hi-vis coat and had lights on the front of my bike but they didn’t pick anything up. If they’re constantly being driven over by heavy vehicles, it stands to reason that these stickers aren’t going to last very long.

‘The council could just keep replacing them, of course, but that is only a temporary solution. My hope is that this focuses the council’s attention on finding a more permanent and reliable way to ensure public safety.’

Sam Collard, head of cycling accident claims at Osbornes Law and part of the team representing Richard, said: ‘Whilst not life-threatening, Richard’s injuries are such that he may never regain full movement in his hand and, at best, faces a long and painful recovery.

‘On a busy road at rush hour, however, it is incredibly fortunate that he was not more seriously hurt, and this should serve as a wake-up call for Croydon council to urgently review its so-called safety measures before the same or worse happens to someone else.’

Croydon Council said it was unable to comment while legal proceedings were active.

Father-of-two, 63, who shattered his wrist after road ‘safety measure’ threw him off his bike sues council claiming he couldn’t see black ‘base’ because it was too dark