Where do I stand?

6th October 2011

Hi, this is my first post and I have just been declined my claim. My insurance company has also said they are content the Council did maintain the road IAW the set procedures.

I had my incident on 18 Jan 11, on the B4022 between Enstone and Gt Tew. The pothole was on a national speed limit section and I was driving a Volvo XC90. I was travelling in the direction of Enstone at the national speed limit.

I heard a loud bang and the car temporarily went out of control and ended up on the other side of the road. I initially thought it was a random 'blow-out' so pulled over to find the tyre still inflated. The steering wheel was off centre by approx 3 degrees and the car shuddered when braking. I turned round to see if it was something I hit in the road.

The pot hole was approx 5 ft long, 5in deep and a thrid of the way into the carriage way on my side of the road. It was on a sweeping left hand bend and was full of standing water, of which I did start to move out for, not expecting a pot hole!

By the time I got back to the site of the pot hole a Ford Fiesta van had gone through it, and destoryed his nearside completely and whilst taking photos between us, we managed to slow down 4 other vehicles to prevent them from hitting it.

I turned round again to head back in the original direction of travel and decided to get my wife to video the road at 25mph. We almost hit it again! it is that well hidden, even though it was a huge hole!

The claim was initially declined under sec 58 of RTA 1980 as the Council had made a routine inspection on 7 Jan 11 and found nothing adverse. I requested under FOI Act 2000 all claims made and reports of potholes for the period. From 7 Jan 11- 29 Jan 11, 12 people reported the pot hole and 5 have made claims for damage to their vehicles, including myself.

The met data for the period 7 Jan-18 Jan 11 shows no adverse weather, not rain, snow, ice etc that would course such a large hole to form in only 11 days.

Approx 3 weeks after my incident, my wife was driving along the same stretch of road to find a temporary repair of gravel in the hole and a sign warning you of its presence.

Do I have a case? as I am concerned that even though my no claims is protected and has never been used in 11 years of driving, I am now going to have to declare this and doing a comparison search my insurance will increase by circa £300 next year as a result!

Replies (1)

Potholes.co.uk Expert     posted : 07/10/11 at 11:15 am

All that matters to you is whether or not the pothole was reported between 7 to 18 January. If it wasn't, you probably have nothing to go on. However, it is was, you need to asking why it was not repaired prior to your accident and see what the response is.