Roadworks damaged my tyre and wheel

Chucky1234

Hi all.

On the way to work this morning, traffic my usual route so I took a route I don't normally use. On one road they were doing roadworks and there were various potholes, untarmaced road and exposed drains sticking out.

I hit one of these drains which damaged my alloy and gave me a puncture and damaged my alloy - which is costing £80 for a new tyre and to repair the alloy. The car is a new car so I weren't going to put part worns on it.

Obviously I take some responsibility as I'm the one who hit it but the state of the road was in it's bound to happen to somebody - it's also a fairly busy road too so you can't just swerve over the road and by the time the car infront has cleared it you have very little time to react safely.

My short question is this - do the council or whoever was doing the roadworks have a duty of care to ensure the road is roadworthy at all times? There are no signs up or anything. Is it worth writing to the council about this? Am I likely to get anything back? Or should I just write it off?

This is my first incident on the road and although I admit it was partially my fault, the road should never have been opened in the condition it was in imo. I also have dash cam footage which I will try to upload later when I finish work.

Thanks for all your help in advance

wgl2014

You can try, no harm in asking.

How fast were you going? I would suggest hitting a raised drain cover at slow speed wouldn't cause any issue unless it was seriously raised up, in which case it should have been closed off to traffic.

Nobbie1967

You have admitted you knew the road was unsurfaced and that you were driving to close to the car in front to avoid the raised ironworks. I think you should just put it down to experience and move on.

We're there really no signs at all warning of roadworks?

Chucky1234

I'd say I was travelling about 20-25mph.

I'm not even fully sure if I was behind a car at the time but I know I didn't have time to react after seeing the drain exposed otherwise I would've avoided it - I will have to review the dashcam footage.

kmb500

Yes it is the council's responsibility to ensure the road is safe to drive on, and if you have damage from a pot hole they may be able to compensate you. Look on their website, there's probably an application to be compensated.

Chucky1234

I must also add it all happened so quickly and I didn't even think it was damaged at the time - it was only after 30 seconds down the road my car notified me to check tyre pressure when I realised. As such - my version of events may not be 100% accurate until I look at my dashcam footage - at the moment I've just described it how I remember.

I appreciate people giving advice but if people would rather wait until they know the full circumstance 100% that's fine too.

BeenThroughItAll

Chucky1234 wrote: »

I must also add it all happened so quickly and I didn't even think it was damaged at the time - it was only after 30 seconds down the road my car notified me to check tyre pressure when I realised. As such - my version of events may not be 100% accurate until I look at my dashcam footage - at the moment I've just described it how I remember.

I appreciate people giving advice but if people would rather wait until they know the full circumstance 100% that's fine too.

Might be worth putting the dashcam video up, that'll give all the facts.

Chucky1234

I will put the dashcam video up when I finish work

m0bov

Get back there sharpish and take photos before the road is repaired.

Chucky1234

Bad news guys - I don't think my dashcam is working properly and it hasn't recorded the relevant part of the journey - annoying!

neilmcl

Chucky1234 wrote: »

My short question is this - do the council or whoever was doing the roadworks have a duty of care to ensure the road is roadworthy at all times? There are no signs up or anything. Is it worth writing to the council about this? Am I likely to get anything back? Or should I just write it off?

Roadworks with exposed ironwork and absolutely no signs. I find this very hard to believe, either that or you were simply not paying attention.