Old Pothole Re-opened Near Great Hatfield East Yorkshire

by Steve63

01 Jan 2011

I had a call at about 10.30 this morning from my wife. She had voluntered to take my sons friend home to Hornsea from Hull after having stayed at our house following a New Years eve party at our house.
She had hit a big pothole on Hornsea Road abou half a mile north east of Great Hatfield just after the Goxhill turn off. She saw the hole which was a couple of foot out from the grass verge but couldn't swerve around it as there was a car comming towards her in the other carriageway.
The car is a Megane CC which has 4 tyre deflation warning lights on the dash. The dash did not warn of any problem with the tyre inflation and the car seemed to be o.k. so she carried on to Hornsea which was about 2 miles away.
It wasn't until she turned into the lads road 3 1/2 miles after the pothole that it became obvious that there was a problem with the car so she stopped and called me.
I called the AA and they recovered the car back to our home address. Both near side tyres were deflated and the front wheel has got a flat in the inside of the rim. The front tyre will not inflate at all and is badly damaged from being driven flat and the rear tyre will not hold pressure. The dash still does not indicate a problem with tyre pressures!
I rang The East Riding of Yorkshire Council to report the pothole. They at first said they where not taking reports of pot holes because there was so many of them! It was only after I insited that because of the location of this one and the speed limit on the road I considered it to be very dangerous she asked me for the details. As soon as I started to explain the location of the hole the woman from the council said she knew of the pothole as it has been reported the day before by a local woman. Ten minutes after I put the phone down the woman rang back to tell me that the council workmen were on their way to repair the hole and that although it had been reported the day before the repair people had not received any report.
My wife has been in contact with her insurers who say the damage should be covered by her insurance. What I don't know is should we be making a claim on the insurance or the council? Or will the insurance recover costs from the council after we claim on them?
Steve.