Pothole on Simonside Picnic Area Road

by mikebechstein

11 Aug 2010

The camber of the road means that the side of the pothole nearest the edge of the road has no depth but the side nearest the centre of the road is very deep. The three deep sides of the pothole are almost vertical and it is large enough to take the whole of the section of the tyre that is touching the road. This means that, on exiting the pothole, it is like hitting a kerb head on. I was going between 25 and 30 mile an hour and the hole (due to it having a flat and level edge near the edge of the road) did not appear too bad until quite close. There were some sheep on the road further on and I could see another vehicle (a little way off) coming the other way so there was plenty to be watching. The hole is not that obvious from afar due to the rising and falling of the road and when taking a second look I realised how big the hole was. I swerved but I was so close that it made no difference. Even at the low speed, the bang was extremely load. So load that I thought I had done some damage to the axle or suspension, but the damage turned out to be the tyre and wheel which were both damaged beyond repair. Apparently, I may have knocked the wheel alignment out slightly but there is no immediate evidence of this. However, the wheel and tyre combination cost nearly £300.

I have tried to attach photos of the pothole but it says that they exceed the max size. (They are all more than 2MB but less than 3 MB. If 2MB is the size limit on this site then it is a little absurd as most photos nowadays are bigger than 2MB.)

I am about to start making a claim.