Road of Dudley

by luvclk

18 Feb 2010

On 2nd December 2009 at about 0430 hours I was travelling along Nith Place, Dudley, when my front offside wheel hit a pothole. This caused the lower wishbone to literally snap in two and as a consequence the wheel flicked out at a right angle to the car damaging the front inner and outer wing, the drive shaft, the front bumper, the brake disc, the wheel and tyre. As my car was then also stranded in the junction the police had to have it moved at the cost of £150. The cost to fix the damage was just under £1300. Following the advice on this site as soon as I could I went back and photographed the pothole with a tape measure in picture to show that the figures I would put in my claim were accurate. I also then reported the pothole to the council. It's a good job I took pictures first as it had been filled in a couple of hours later. I then wrote to the council notifying them of my intention to claim for the damage caused. I also submitted my Freedom of Information request (as per the website) the same day. The council did get back to me fairly quickly advising me that they would investigate my claim and also mentioning their defence under the Highways Act. A few e-mails went back and forth, during which time I did have to go and have my wrist checked by the Dr as the collision span the steering wheel. My claim was then immediately referred to Zurich Insurance, the councils agents. Within a week or so I had received a letter from Zurich telling me that they had completed their investigation into this claim and that the general defence under the Highways Act was appropriate and my claim would not be successful. The letter from Zurich was poorly written and left several holes for me to question, which I subsequently did. I wrote back questioning assumptions they had made about road conditions, the state of the road and the inspection system Dudley Council employs. I also used the information available through this website and other information I found to ask further questions of the council under freedom of information. Eventually Zurich replied, again denying my claim, this time sending me copies of maps and highway inspection reports. They had put crosses on the map to show where previous inspections had recorded damage to the carriageway and then another cross where my incident had taken place, well away from the damage crosses, however the records themselves actually recorded damage to the carriageway at the very point where I hit the pothole but they blatantly ignored this information and obviously hoped that I had missed it. Zurich were trying to bully me into dropping this matter. I again wrote back to them telling them that I will not be bullied or mislead into dropping this matter as I had received my information from the council and could prove beyond any doubt what so ever that the council were aware of the damage to the carriageway over 2 years prior to me hitting it and that I now wanted them to prove a claim theymade that abnormally heavy rain on the weekend prior to my accident had caused the damage to the carriageway as the reports I could find showed light rain only. Today I received another letter from Zurich advising me that they accepted full liabilty for this matter.
They have not yet made any financial offer but by researching things properly and following the guide that this website provides and approaching the matter calmly (most of the time) I have made a successful claim, seemingly against the odds.
If you can prove that the council were aware of the damage to the carriageway your claim should be successful but do not be put off by big insurance companies (or councils) trying to bully you into not taking the matter any further. Even if they were not aware if inspection systems were not appropriate for the classification of road then your claim could also be successful. I found out during this claim that the road I was on is unclassified by the council but according to govt. guidlines it should be much higher than that. I am considering making the correspondance between the council, Zurich and myself available on the internet in the hope that it may help other people who have been amde a victim in a similar matter.
BUT, always report a pothole when you see one. Once they are aware the chances of them paying out are much greater.
Pread the word . SEE A POTHOLE REPORT A POTHOLE!!