Potholes

by landman 14 Dec 2010 Been to court today to claim for new tyre and wheel. The magistrate started off by informing me that as a claimant I have an uphill task to prove the the Highway Authority was a fault. So the law of the land is firmly against the victim. Having demonstrated that a pothole of 77mm deep and 90mm in length existed along a single track road and caused damage. The county council had not inspected the road in accordance with their own guidelines - the annual inspection was carried out 3.5 months early. I had proof that I had reported the hole to the council several months previously but the magistrate stated that I had not expressed the matter strongly enough to the council. I had report a road subsidence and a 'number of potholes' in the same facinity. The council repaired the subsidence but the potholes. Never mind the council employee stated that he had driven down the road to inspect a report damaged area. The magistrate then lead the employee with the following comment, "I imagine that you inspected the road for other faults and if there were any you would have reported them." The employee nodding like the Churchill dog in the back of a car was clearly grateful to the magistrate in providing a way out of a breach of their own rules. The magistrate then in her judgment made a number of errors but would not correct them. Needless to say lost case. Will I inform the council of a pothole - no let them discover it in their inspection process. The legal process is firmly against the victim of poorly maintained roads, but since the council and the law courts are funded by the same source hardly surprising they are so against the individual. Just because an Council employee does not see a pothole does not mean that it is not there. They have a vested interest in not finding potholes as the law stands they will be believed over the public, and they do not have to fund any repair.

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Comments (4)

Steve63    posted : 01/01/11 at 4.32pm

I rang the council to report a pot hole which my wife hit and which deflated both nearside tyres and put a flat in the front alloy only to be told that they were not taking reports of potholes as there were too many!rnWhen I went on to say that it was in a 60mph speed limit and that cars swerving to avoid it could cause an accident with on comming vehicles she asked for more details and it turned out she knew the exact pothole I was talking about as it had been reported the day before.

Potholes.co.uk Expert    posted : 20/12/10 at 9.30am

I feel your frustration, but if you don't mind, there are some key points from your experiences that might help others;rnrn1. The law does favour the highway authority and the burden of proof is on you.rn2. The existence of the pothole and the fact that you hit it is simply not enough to win a case.rn3. The existence of a "number of potholes" is not proof of the exact pothole that caused your accident.rn4. Never admit that you reported a pothole, but then hit it at a later date. You also have an obligation to watch where you are going, and if you knew the pothole was there .......rn5. Roads do not have to be perfect and highway authorities are not obligated to repair each and every defect. What you consider to be a "deep" pothole might not actually be deep enough to warrent repair.rn6. An inspector is not expected to see everything during an inspection, only what he or she can be reasonably expected to see. Parked or moving cars can easily obscure the view of a pothole at the time of inspection.rn7. Courts love routine highway safety inspections. There is an assumption that if the pothole was that bad, the inspector would have either seen it or hit it themselves. Therefore, the assumption is that it either wasn't there or it was well hidden.

RBuck    posted : 16/12/10 at 3.22pm

What do you mean when you said they didn't feel you hadn't expressed the matter strongly enough?

Joshua1    posted : 14/12/10 at 5.31pm

I fully understand your frustration. This confirms my article of the 12/12/10 "is there any point in reporting road defects?". I have experienced the same response from a Highway Engineer who claimed that he used the route I was reporting regularly and that my perception of the potholes differed from his. He then told me that other roads would take priority!

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