Biker hits crater and cracks rib on road in Henley

A WOMAN who works at a care home was thrown off her moped when she hit a pothole in Henley.

Wendy Fricker, 65, had been travelling in Station Road at 20mph when she hit the crater following her shift at Acacia Lodge on February 3. She fell from her machine and landed in the road, suffering a cracked rib, which kept her off work for almost three weeks.

Ms Fricker said she had been unable to see the hole, which measured about eight inches deep and two feet long, as it was filled with water and mistook it for a puddle.

She told the Henley Standard: “I was leaving work at about 5.20pm. It was dark, it was wet and still raining and I hit this pothole at 20mph.

“I was thrown off my moped and landed in front of where the taxis were parked. My moped flew off to the right.

“I was shaking for a little bit because I was in shock. It was my worst nightmare.

“I’ve been riding motorbikes my whole life and now, for the first time, I’m a little bit scared of using my moped.”

Ms Fricker, who lives in Goodall Close, was helped by two taxi drivers and two women who had been walking past at the time. They helped carry her to the train station where she could wait for her son, who picked her up and took her home.

Ms Fricker said her injured rib made it painful to breathe and was in pain whenever she needed to sneeze.

“I couldn’t sleep lying down because it was underneath my left arm,” she said. “Every time I breathed or sneezed it was painful.

“I lost wages as well because I couldn’t come to work.

“I started to think maybe my biker days are over. I’m using it at the moment but I am coming to work a nervous wreck because there’s so many other holes and I can’t take another bashing like that. My son was absolutely furious. He also rides a motorbike.”

She added that if roads are continued to be allowed to deteriorate, someone is going to be “seriously, seriously hurt”. Ms Fricker, who is the lifestyle lead at the care home, in Quebec Road, was signed off by a doctor for seven days.

She then used the rest of her annual leave to cover most of the time off but had to also take several days off without pay to recover.

Ms Fricker has issued a complaint to Oxfordshire County Council, the highways authority, but has not received a response.

The pothole was filled almost two weeks after Ms Fricker’s incident took place.

She added: “I normally dodge the potholes quite well. I live in Goodall Close, so I come down Greys Road to go to work but the bottom of Greys Road is like a minefield.

“What scares me is you’re taking your eyes off the traffic because you’re looking at the road.

“When I turn in off Greys Road into Goodall Close there has been a big hole there and they filled it in, it must be four or five times now, but within days it all comes out again.

“The one in Station Road caught me out good and proper. If it had been marked, I would have known it was a pothole and not a puddle. But in the dark at 5.20pm at night I couldn’t tell.”

Two weeks ago, the Henley Standard reported that the number of potholes recorded in and around Henley exceeded 900 last year.

A Freedom of Information request to the county council found that Kidmore End was the worst impacted, recording nearly a quarter of the total number of potholes — 216, while Henley had 126. The figures related to the period from December 2024 to December 2025.

A spokesman for the county council said: “We are sorry to hear about this incident and wish the woman a speedy recovery.

“The pothole itself is under investigation by our team. Details about how to claim compensation for damage caused is available on our website.”