Widow suing council over claim that pothole killed her husband

GRIEVING widow Aileen Newcombe is suing the council she blames for her husband's death.

- PETE PHEASANT

A coroner ruled that 70-year-old Robert Newcombe was thrown from his motorcycle as a result of a “degraded road surface”.

Now, his 71-year-old widow has launched a High Court action against North Northamptonshire Council, claiming “substantial” damages.

But above all, she wants justice for her husband of 47 years.

"They have tried to blame him and I'm not having it," said Mrs Newcombe, of Julian Close, Ilkeston. "I don't care if I get nothing. I want his name exonerated. I want people to know he did nothing wrong."

The council denies liability and the case will go before a judge if the two sides cannot reach a settlement.

RETIRED union official Mr Newcombe known as Bob - had been passionate about motorbikes since childhood and was on his Indian Scout when he set out from Kirkbyin-Ashfield with dozens of other bikers on the morning of September 25, 2022, intending to visit a memorial to the founder of the Hells Angels.

The convoy was on the A43 in Northamptonshire when the tragedy happened.

Mr Newcombe had begun to overtake a car as he approached a righthand turn to the village of Walgrave when his machine caught a cat's eye, according to another biker on the ride.

He said Mr Newcombe wobbled slightly and tried to correct but his machine "took air" and when it came back down, he and the machine were thrown along the road.

A police crash investigator said Mr Newcombe slid 53 metres before hitting the kerb of a traffic island.

He suffered head injuries from which he died at the scene, despite efforts by paramedics to save him.

The investigator found the road "heavily disrupted, uneven and undulating" with peaks and ruts in the surface creating a difference in levels of up to five inches or more.