Claim for damage during roadworks

tsb

Back in June my car was damaged after driving through a road which had been left with no proper road surface where the manhole and drain covers are exposed. There were signs on the road warning of the roadworks, no work was being done at the time and cars had been allowed to park on both sides of the road making manoeuvring through the obstacles very difficult without actually driving over the raised manholes. These manholes were left very high and some had no smoothed edges, just a sharp drop.

The drivers side of the car came down off one of these manhole covers and I thought the tyre had punctured. It had, but worse than that, the suspension spring had broken which had in turn ripped into the tyre.

I made a claim to the council, for the repair cost of the spring and tyre. The spring was only 18 months old and the tyre was less than 6 months old. I included lots of photos of the road condition, vehicle and damage and copy invoices. The claim was £160 in total. The claim has now been rejected on the grounds that there were adequate signage of the roadworks.

I would like to take this further as I do not believe that vehicles should have been allowed to park at the side of the road whilst the road was in that condition. I am thinking that the council were therefore negligent with a proper "no parking" restriction which had left driving along the road in that condition more hazardous and dangerous.

I would appreciate some advice if anyone has had any similar experience of claims with the council or what my next step should be.

Tilt

Yes I had a very similar experience about 20 years ago.

Exposed man hole cover (no tarmac 'crown' around it) ripped the inside wall of my tyre on brand new car as I negotiated the works at night. Like you, there were no warning lights or proper signage.

BUT it is important to take pictures IMMEDIATELY of the scene BEFORE making a complaint. In my case, within 15 mins of my initial phone call, the affected area had been put right.

I had to take the damaged tyre to the site to show the contractor's manager after initially contacting the council. After threatening to take the matter through the small claims court, they re-inbursed me the cost of a new tyre.

dannyrst

Not being funny but you must have been driving at a fair pace to do that sort of damage to such a new spring.

Quentin

Your ultimate step is to pursue them through court.


if you think it worth the candle, then do take some legal advice on your chances of winning before spending on a court claim (you only get the court fees back if you are successful) and it costs around £50 for a hearing over £160.


If you lose then apart from being down the £50 you will have to pay the other sides allowable expenses.

tsb

dannyrst wrote: »

Not being funny but you must have been driving at a fair pace to do that sort of damage to such a new spring.

Not being funny but you are so wrong.

dannyrst

tsb wrote: »

Not being funny but you are so wrong.

How big was this drop then? Can't have been too big or bodywork behind the wheel would have caught (assuming this is the front wheel)?

Is it a road near where you live? Has anyone else had a problem getting over it?

warehouse

dannyrst wrote: »

Has anyone else had a problem getting over it?

How exactly would the OP know this?

dannyrst

warehouse wrote: »

How exactly would the OP know this?

He went back to the site of the incident, was anyone pulled over changing a wheel because they too had an issue?

I asked if he lived local to the location of the incident, neighbours/family/friends may have driven over the same road?

ChumLee

So there was signage and threrefore you proceeded with caution. Yet the incident still occurred due to the parked vehicles and had they not been there it wouldn't have happened?

tsb

dannyrst wrote: »

He went back to the site of the incident, was anyone pulled over changing a wheel because they too had an issue?

I asked if he lived local to the location of the incident, neighbours/family/friends may have driven over the same road?

You are getting a little bogged down here. I have no idea if someone else had to drive over exactly the same raised manhole cover as I did (due to the positioning of parked vehicles), at the exact same spot / angle / road condition etc with tyre and metalwork that I did.

Even if they did and their car survived without damage, does that make my damage any less... I think not. I know I was taking great care, nobody drives over these things at speed unless they are an idiot and I am certainly not an idiot.

Thank you to all other posters with their advice.

There is always one that has to spoil it

tsb

ChumLee wrote: »

So there was signage and threrefore you proceeded with caution. Yet the incident still occurred due to the parked vehicles and had they not been there it wouldn't have happened?

The parked vehicles had to be avoided, therefore to drive around a vehicle, I could not avoid driving over some of the raised manhole covers. Had the parked vehicles not have been there interfering with space available to drive through the obstacles (the various raised manhole covers) then maybe not.

In short, no it may not have happened.