An Athens court has awarded damages of 4,500 euros to a motorcyclist injured three years ago when his bike crashed as a result of sloppy roadworks.

In a decision made public yesterday, the court found that public works contractor Ioannis Vourakis should compensate Evangelos Lekkas over the accident on Vouliagmenis Avenue in June 1999.

The court was told that Lekkas had lost control of the bike and crashed, suffering arm and leg injuries, after encountering a series of bumps on the road near the old Athens airport. The motorbike was a write-off.

Vourakis’s company had built a footbridge at that point in 1989, but failed to fill in a series of holes it had opened in the tarmac. The road was eventually patched up by the Public Works Ministry, but not to a satisfactory degree. The court, however, found that Vourakis should have done the job.