Council workers slammed over claims about huge crack in road that killed 'true gent' cyclist

Council workers who suggested a six-inch deep crack in a road which killed a cyclist could have closed up - and then reopened - on its own have been slammed by a coroner. Retired teacher Harry Colledge suffered a catastrophic brain injury after he was thrown from his bike when his front wheel became lodged in a huge crack in the road, LancsLive reports.

The 84-year-old, who was a keen cyclist, had been riding down in Lancashire with a friend when the crash happened on the morning of January 2 this year. Despite the best efforts of passers-by and North West Ambulance Service paramedics, Harry died after being taken to Royal Preston Hospital.

Three weeks later, more than 300 people attended his funeral to pay their respects to the "true gent". An inquest held this week today (October 13) heard how the crack in Island Lane which caused Harry's death was visible back in March 2009 when the road was photographed for Google Street View.

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Thirteen years later, in September 2022, the chairman of Winmarleigh Parish Council arranged for pictures to be taken of the defect and then sent to a highways boss at Lancashire County Council (LCC). The team of four highways operatives who were sent to Island Lane to assess the road for any defects in need of repair were not shown the pictures. When they visited the road, on September 15, they all failed to spot the crack.

During the inquest one of the council workers admitted that their focus had been on looking for any defects that would