Pothole Repair lasted less than 2 Hours!

29th June 2011

Hello,
Basically, I hit a pothole on M74 near Hamilton causing 2 tyres needing replaced on a car less than 2 weeks old. Just had claim rejected by Amey. They say that although they had a pothole report at 9.53am on day I hit it, they made a 'temporary repair'-their words-at 10.15am. I hit the pothole no later than Mid-Day so their repair lasted around 105 minutes during which time Amey say they were not aware of any further defect!
They say 'temporary repairs' will often fail and so I do not have a valid claim.How can a repair that lasted less than 2 hours be considered a repair?
Any advice as to what to do next appreciated
Thanks

Replies (4)

lfee15     posted : 15/07/11 at 12:54 pm

Ricky, Hi I have just read your post today. I also had £350 damaged to a brand new tyre and alloy and was given the exact same reason as you. I am sorry but I am not going to sit back and take this - I am going to fight my corner on this one. If you want to contact me on lorraine@italfs.co.uk and we will see if we can fight this together.

Potholes.co.uk Expert     posted : 29/06/11 at 4:52 pm

The law is already stacked in favour of the highway and road authorities. Furthermore, motorways and trunk roads generally receive the highest level of care because of the speeds involved if something goes wrong.

Sorry, but I really believe this is a none starter.

ricky88     posted : 29/06/11 at 12:52 pm

Hello,
Thanks for your prompt reply and comments-I will assume that taking the matter further is pointless.
Thanks anyway for your help.

Potholes.co.uk Expert     posted : 29/06/11 at 12:41 pm

To defend your claim, they have to be seen to have acted reasonably. They attended to the pothole within about 20 minutes, which is pretty damn impressive.

OK, the repair did not last, but you need to ask yourself what else could they have done in those 105 minutes to have avoided your incident? In my humble opinion, the answer is not much. There's no way they could arrange the signs, cones and materials to undertake a 'proper' repair, so that left them with 3 choices:
1. Do nothing until they could execute a proper repair.
2. Block the lane of the motorway.
3. Do a quick temporary repair which might not last.

Temporary repairs often do not last long, but I honestly believe they took the best course of action. Albeit for only a short, they alleviated the risk to motorists, just not you I'm afraid.