Pothole Damaged My Car

[Pigg3h]

I Hit a delve in the road which was either a pot hole or a manhole cover deeply sunk in the road. The bump caused my car to lose all drive and now it won't start up.
is there anything i can do about this or do i just have to fork out the hefty bill to get my car fixed.

[Buenchico]

You could try demanding that the Highways Agency (if it was a major trunk route) or the County Council (for all other roads) pays you compensation for your loss.

If you do, the matter will be passed to their solicitor. He (or she) will examine the evidence to see whether it's likely that a court would rule in your favour. There are two main issues that would need to be considered:

Firstly, the solicitor would examine whether, based upon the balance of probabilities, a court would uphold your claim that the damage was caused by a pothole. You'd need to provide details of the location and measurements of the pothole (preferably with photographs including a ruler or measuring tape) and a mechanic's report stating that the damage was consistent with the vehicle striking a pothole.

Secondly, the solicitor would examine whether you could show (based upon the balance of probabilities) that the council (or Highways Agency) had been negligent. Potholes can develop in a fairly short time, in even the best-maintained of roads. No court would expect every council to examine every single inch of all their roads every day. To show that the council had been negligent you'd either have to show that large sections of the road were filled with potholes (indicating generally poor maintenance standards) or that the council were aware of the specific pothole and had failed to do anything about it (either by repairing it or coning off that part of the road).

Simply having a pothole in their road doesn't indicate that the council has been negligent. As stated, they can't be expected to examine every inch of their roads every day. If you can't show that the council (or Highway's Agency) has been negligent, any court action would be bound to fail. Their solicitor would tell them this and advise them not to pay out.

Chris

[danchip]

authorities whether local council or a company employed to deal with trunk roads are only required by the highway agency/transport scotland to inspect the routes once every week therefore it is possible that the pothole has 7 days to develop therefore if they have carried out the latest inspection they have met their obligation and aren't liable for any damages, manholes are the responsibility of the utilities company such as bt or water company.

the favourite reply for people trying to claim compensation is that you should of been driving in a manner which would allow you to see potholes or objects in the road in enough time to react and avoid the obstacle

a lesson i hope people will learn from this is if you see a pothole/ manhole in bad condition on a road ring the council and they'll deal with it, if you report this it is a legal requirement that it is dealt with by means of temporary repair within 2 hours

[TheGrump]

Before you get all excited and go down the legal route, there may be a simpler soluttion. Most modern cars are fitted with a trembler switch, which has the effect in the event of an accident of cutting off the voltage supply to the fuel pump of the car, thus stopping the engine if you couldn't.
It sounds to me as though this switch has been jolted out of alignment.

All you have to do is refer to your manual, or probably quicker search the www for your car model and location of inertia switch, and reset it.

I have had the same thing happen to me.

Hope this helps, bottle of scotch for Xmas if I am right please lol

[Lakitu]

The same thing happen to me and around a dozen other cars a couple of years ago, most of the cars got a puncture (it was a back road on a Winters night, hence nobody saw the hole).

The police were called out to direct traffic around all us stranded cars and the AA to help everyone. My car also lost all power and all the AA man did was press a button under the bonnet. Apparently my car had jolted so violently that the safety cut out for petrol going places it shouldn't in my car came into play (I didn't know such a feature existed).

If I were you, I'd look up your manual or call your local dealer to find out if your car has this feature too.

As an aside, every one of us called for the cost of our new tyre to be paid by the council who knew about the hole and had only filled it with loost chippings a couple of days prior. We all got compensation in the end.