DAMAGE FROM POTHOLE

by Kardella

14 Jun 2010

I was driving at night and hit a deep pothole which caused me to swerve and stop on a very busy dual carriage way. I had damaged my alloy wheel and tyre and both had to be replaced. I coudnt drive home and the AA put on my spare wheel. When I arrived at the garage a couple of days later they showed me a huge pile of tyres which were from potholes; there must have been 50 there and that was just one garage;one week...I was shocked. I made a claim via HCC insurance section where I was advised that I had to show in three areas that they had been negligent which I did. Needless to say they had an excuse.... it was "low resources" and "unusual weather". Are not all our winters cold and frosty? I have appealed but have been unsuccessful. I am taking it further as the excuses they have provided are easy to make and could be used for any complaint. HCC have a duty to keep the roads safe for its users, their website confirms the same. Risk Management /Extreme conditions pre planning should ensure that if there is unusual weather that plans are in place to make roads safe. This was obviously not carried out and is a bad Management fault. The depth of some of these potholes can cause major accidents. Without any prompting HCC have confirmed to me by letter that signs are not placed warning road users of Potholes ...WHY NOT! Their excuse for not putting them up is that they are in themselves a hazard??!! Why then are HCC placing warning signs when a road has been newly re-surfaced with stone chippings warning that you must not drive more than 20 miles and hour otherwise you might skid...Why are there no road warning signs for bad potholes where you might lose control of your car. Deep potholes are NOT low risk! I feel that they are making any excuse for not paying out and not warning road users of danger. They have insurance cover for just these types of claims and we pay for it through our taxes.
My next move is to contact the ombudman.