[agentorange]

Just read how a pothole took out multiple car tyres on the M6.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd10v205xldo

Saw something similar on a smaller scale once in Vegas. Got to the top of a dark freeway on ramp using low beams because of cars on the other carriageway and narrowly missed a huge chunk of 18-wheeler tyre. They call them alligators out here. I was in an XKR and it probably would have trashed the front spoiler assembly. Within half a mile of joining the freeway I saw 4-5 cars pulled over on the hard shoulder with people looking under the front of their vehicles or pulling at dislodged wheelarch liners. No sign of a stopped truck, naturally.

[cramsnik]

I suspect the motorist will end up footing the bill. They could try a claim against the local authority for costs incurred but, going by what I've read it's a difficult process that usually ends in rejection of the claim anyway.

Originally Posted by agentorange

Just read how a pothole took out multiple car tyres on the M6.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd10v205xldo

Saw something similar on a smaller scale once in Vegas. Got to the top of a dark freeway on ramp using low beams because of cars on the other carriageway and narrowly missed a huge chunk of 18-wheeler tyre. They call them alligators out here. I was in an XKR and it probably would have trashed the front spoiler assembly. Within half a mile of joining the freeway I saw 4-5 cars pulled over on the hard shoulder with people looking under the front of their vehicles or pulling at dislodged wheelarch liners. No sign of a stopped truck, naturally.

[TurboWeasel]

Interesting how 20 people all drove into the same hole at speed Should have slowed down when they saw the first lot thumping into the chasm.

Yep, tax payers will ultimately foot the bill if the claims are signed off.

[gac]

Originally Posted by cramsnik

I suspect the motorist will end up footing the bill. They could try a claim against the local authority for costs incurred but, going by what I've read it's a difficult process that usually ends in rejection of the claim anyway.

I think motorways would be National Highways, formerly Highways England (formerly Highways Agency?) rather than any local authority, I don't know if they respond to costs incurred. I'm told local authorities are able to use the excuse "we didn't know about it" to avoid paying out, so I've heard from a car-minded friend who actually bothered to chase ours for the cost of a wheel repair.

For that reason https://www.fixmystreet.com is probably your friend here, pick a location on a map, it'll tell you who is responsible and (if you're lucky) allow you to submit a pothole report straight from their site. Not all councils etc accept them, so it'll also usually give you a link to the council's pothole reporting site for you to do it directly. I do it for anything I think needs fixing, and I encourage you all to do it too. If I have to do it with the council directly (which I do for pretty much any road on here) then I always make the report number public on FixMyStreet for anyone else to find so that they hopefully have a claim and the council can't just say they didn't know because there's documented proof that they did. It's kind of ridiculous that it comes to this but this appears to be the reality of the country we live in at the moment...

[Pentland]

I’ve successfully claimed for damage from potholes a couple of times.
It won’t be the council you claim from but the relevant highway contractor (Bear etc)

You may get fobbed off with the “we didn’t know about” or “the roads are regularly inspected” excuses but be persistent and tell them their inspections are inadequate otherwise a hole that size would have been address earlier.

[3-GT]

They've let the cat out of the bag by stating they did a 'temporary' fix to it over a year ago. That surely should've prompted more frequent inspections until a lasting repair could be done?

I can't see them wiggling out of this one easily if the owners stick to their guns.

[agentorange]

Now a pothole has effectively disabled an ambulance. I shouldn't be too surprised, there's a road near my extended family in Essex that the ambulances avoid because of potholes.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c14kwnnvlkjo