Pot hole damage- Are claims worth the effort?

[DSM10000]

As SWMBO was away last night I arranged to meet with friends for supper at a local pub about 8 miles away from home.

The route involves some rather narrow lanes that are single track with passing places, fairly typical around here.

One such section has a long sweeping left hand bend, as I came around it I could see that the road was flooded. On checking the depth it was only just reaching a few cm up the tyre and was no problem to drive through. As the road straightened out it was clear that the flooding extended about another 80m or so but the depth was still manageable. I set off at a brisk walking pace, no more than 5mph and the water was moving aside easily until there was a very loud bang and the car pulled sharply left.

As I left the flooded section I checked the car and found that the nearside front tyre was flat. All others seemed OK so I moved to a dry and wider area and changed the wheel.

We had a pleasant evening and upon leaving around 10:45 I decided to take a slightly longer route back to avoid that lane. After approximately 2 miles the car was making a rubbing noise that was worse upon acceleration, I stopped and found that the nearside rear tyre was not only flat but that the tread and sidewall were separating from the rim.

With three wheels on my wagon I was clearly going no where, it rubbed salt into the wounds when I realised I had stopped outside a local garage that fits tyres!

Green flag got me home very efficiently and today my excellent local tyre supplier fitted two new Michelins, repaired a buckled wheel and re-set the tracking and all for £250.

Clearly I could not photograph the pot hole as it was dark and underwater but has anyone here experience of pursuing a local authority to pay for the damage? When I mentioned it in the pub I was told that others had damaged their vehicles on that very stretch of road recently

 

[developer]

There was a very recent thread about this - try search.

 

[st13phil]

Yes, it's worth the effort. Lots of advice about how to do so at Potholes.co.uk

 

[joecash]

is it worth the hassle and agro for £250 - that is if you win

 

[grumpyoldgit]

Extract from an email I received from confused dot com

18% more potholes on our roads.


The state of Britain’s roads is deteriorating and increasing numbers of vehicles are suffering damage from hitting potholes, according to a new report.
The latest annual road survey published by the Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA) shows that the national pothole crisis is worsening.
The AIA says there are now more than 2 million potholes in England and Wales, up 18 per cent from 1.7 million last year.
Meanwhile, £32 million has been paid out in compensation to motorists in the past 12 months, an annual increase of more than 50 per cent.
Putting an end to 'patch and mend'

It costs on average £53 to fill a pothole, and last year the bill for repairing roads came to £117 million, the report shows.
The AIA says that the statistics show that the current "patch and mend" system just isn’t working.

Instead, the organisation is calling for action from central government to introduce longer-term funding, allowing councils to introduce preventative maintenance systems.
But until a system is devised to reduce the number of potholes, more and more of our vehicles will be damaged by unrepaired roads.
Claiming compensation

So if you are affected, how do you go about claiming compensation?
First, you'll need to contact the body responsible for the road – in the case of motorways and major A roads, that will be the Highways Agency, and for other roads it's normally the local council.
The website Potholes.co.uk is a very useful resource for taking you through the claim process, and offers advice and success stories.
Gather vital evidence

It's important to gather as much information as you can from the scene of the incident.
So when you're aware your vehicle has been damaged, pull over if safe and make a note of the date, time and location of the accident.
Take photographs both of the pothole and your vehicle, ask for the details of any witnesses, and make a note of any CCTV cameras.
If you can't do this at the time then return as soon as possible afterwards.
Beat the council’s defence

Many councils and highways agencies will try to get out of making payouts by citing Section 58 of the Highways Act 1980.
This counters claims on the basis that they have taken reasonable measures to ensure that road problems such as potholes are found and dealt with swiftly.
However, under The Freedom of Information Act you have the right to ask the council when a road was last inspected or had work carried out.

It's free and relatively simple to put forward this Freedom of Information request and the council is legally required to provide these details within 20 working days.
Comparing this with the national code of good practice for highway maintenance and showing that the local authority has fallen short will counter its defence.
Car insurance

If you've got fully comprehensive car insurance, it's possible to claim against that for pothole damage to your vehicle.
However, this will count as an at-fault claim and affect your no-claims bonus.
So it's worth calculating the benefit of having the car repaired relatively promptly against the longer-term effect on your premiums.
'Ongoing problem'

With underfunding of road maintenance an ongoing issue, the pothole problem isn't going to go away overnight.
However, in the meantime it's worth reporting potholes you see to the relevant authorities.
Many of them do want to fix potholes as soon as possible and welcome the public's help in spotting them.

You can report them via your local council or Highways Agency, or through Potholes.co.uk.
The website Fillthathole.org.uk is linked with CTC, the national cycling charity, but can be used by motorists as well.
It passes complaints on to the relevant authority, and if you have an iPhone you can download the FillThatHole app and report potholes from the kerbside.

 

[Dieselman]

I set off at a brisk walking pace, no more than 5mph and the water was moving aside easily until there was a very loud bang and the car pulled sharply left.

As I left the flooded section I checked the car and found that the nearside front tyre was flat.

I would say that it is impossible to burst a healthy condition tyre at 5mph.

 

[DSM10000]

I would say that it is impossible to burst a healthy condition tyre at 5mph.

I did not say it was burst Will, merely flat, the bang was from the suspension bottoming out as the car hit and travelled through the pot hole. The front rim had buckled slightly causing the deflation. I assume the rear had less obvious damage that caused it to lose presure whilst parked for a couple of hours and that then deflated enough to move around on the rim and cause the damage.

 

[horgantrevor]

Irish roads

 

[horgantrevor]

Another

 

[Dieselman]

I did not say it was burst Will, merely flat, the bang was from the suspension bottoming out as the car hit and travelled through the pot hole. The front rim had buckled slightly causing the deflation. I assume the rear had less obvious damage that caused it to lose presure whilst parked for a couple of hours and that then deflated enough to move around on the rim and cause the damage.

The point I'm making is that you can't damage a wheel and tyre at 5mph, you must have been going considerably faster.

 

[DSM10000]

The point I'm making is that you can't damage a wheel and tyre at 5mph, you must have been going considerably faster.

The speed and damage were as described.

The pot hole may well have sharp edges, it was impossible to ascertain in the dark and as said, it was flooded.

 

[alistairgd]

Potholes are my bread and butter.

Advice above from confused dot com is correct. Councils aren't expected to have a magic wand and be able to instantly repair any road defects, they are expected to take reasonable steps in their duty of care to maintain the highways however.

This means regular inspections. If you can ascertain that either the regular inspection did not take place or that it did, the defect was logged, and they failed to act upon it in a reasonable time frame the you have a case.

The chances of your case being paid out in part or in full depend on the authority's claim handlers and how they balance the blame.

Some are paid, some are not, either way you will need to do some legwork first, make your case, then hope for the best.

If it is turned down, you can appeal.

If the appeal is turned down you can take it to court.

If the amount is small, in my experience, rather than go to court, it will be settled.

YMMV.

 

[LesleyDiane]

Snapped off side front spring

I have a 2005 CLS on which this spring snapped whist it was in the garage at night. It went with such a bang resulting in sending the car alarm off. I had to get the car recovered to Mercedes garage for repairs.Has there been a recall on these springs? Any info would be interesting.
Many thanks
Lesley

 

[DSM10000]

I managed to get a few pictures today of the "pothole". Slightly more extensive than I thought!

dsm10000's Library | Photobucket

Clearly this amount of damage has been there for some time and there are other similar areas of broken tarmac along the lane, there are still no warning signs in place either.

I could not find a name along the lane / road but did switch on the GPS function on the camera so I have the co-ordinates. Now I have to find the relevant council and send them the pictures and invoice for the repair costs and see if they will pay up!

 

[alistairgd]

@DSM1000, your first job is to confirm that the road is adopted by the council for maintenance purposes, looking at the photo's that's not a certainty.

 

[DSM10000]

@DSM1000, your first job is to confirm that the road is adopted by the council for maintenance purposes, looking at the photo's that's not a certainty.

Thank you for the reply.

I doubt it is unadopted, it is not a side road or on a private estate but is the main link between a number of villages and the A338.

I thought that roads that are unadopted had to be marked as such?

 

[alistairgd]

Looking at the road width and state of repair made me think it was not a council road, but there are lots of Q class roads that are still the council's responsibility so you are probably right.

There is no marking requirement for unadopted roads.

 

[DSM10000]

I need to put the GPS co-ordinates into a mapping application to find out exactly where the road is in terms of local authority responsibility.

 

[alistairgd]

By the way, a hole that size had been developing for months, so make sure you ask to see their inspection sheets for the past 6 months.

 

[DSM10000]

Thanks,

I was going to ask for all of the recent records pertaining to that road and understand that they have 20 days under the freedom of information act to respond.