Pothole

davisjunior

Hi all. 

I hit a pothole on Friday evening in my local area in South Wales. About 15 mins later driving through a crossroads at 30mph my front driver side wheel literally came off. My van tilted and I skidded across the road and narrowly missed a parked car. My wheel carried on rolling down the hill. Luckily there was a local mobile mechanic who saw what happened and helped me out. My van is still off road with around £500 estimated damage so far. My insurance excess is £500. I’ve looked on Facebook and there seems to be a few people who have complained about potholes on that same stretch of road. I know that the pothole in question was there over Xmas as I avoided it a few times before. Could someone recommend what I should do? As I’ve had a few contrasting opinions. Some say goto the council, other say visit a solicitor or contact your car insurance.

Thank you
Danny 

Supersonos

When you saw it and avoided it over xmas, you should have then reported it to the council.  They could then have come and repaired it.

Have any of the people moaning on Facebook actually reported it to the council?

davisjunior

Forgot to mention that all the bolts on the wheel had snapped off due to the impact  hence why the wheel came off.

davisjunior

Supersonos said:

When you saw it and avoided it over xmas, you should have then reported it to the council.  They could then have come and repaired it.

Have any of the people moaning on Facebook actually reported it to the council?

Yes. Nothing was done and Their claims were rejected 

facade

You will never get them to accept liability for your wheel bolts shearing off, they will say they weren't tightened correctly.

Inspecting the broken stud will show whether it was a fatigue fracture in process, finished off by the impact..

What are those marks that look like someone has drilled into them?

Here's a paper on the subject, I'm sure there are lots more

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11668-017-0297-0

davisjunior

Thanks for your reply. The mechanic had to drill them out so we could get the wheel back on and move the van from the area it was in as it was blocking traffic.

AdrianC

davisjunior said:

I hit a pothole on Friday evening in my local area in South Wales. About 15 mins later driving through a crossroads at 30mph my front driver side wheel literally came off. My van tilted and I skidded across the road and narrowly missed a parked car. My wheel carried on rolling down the hill. Luckily there was a local mobile mechanic who saw what happened and helped me out. My van is still off road with around £500 estimated damage so far. My insurance excess is £500. I’ve looked on Facebook and there seems to be a few people who have complained about potholes on that same stretch of road. I know that the pothole in question was there over Xmas as I avoided it a few times before. Could someone recommend what I should do? As I’ve had a few contrasting opinions. Some say goto the council, other say visit a solicitor or contact your car insurance.

So you knew that such a blindingly visible pothole was there, and STILL you hit it? Then you didn't stop to see if there was any damage...?

davisjunior said:

Forgot to mention that all the bolts on the wheel had snapped off due to the impact  hence why the wheel came off.

10 o'c - no thread in the hole. Was there a bolt there at all?
1 o'c - drilled off-centre...
3 o'c - definitely drilled, complete with lubricant drips. It's not rotated since that lubricant was put in.
5 o'c - looks drilled.
8 o'c - looks drilled, heavily corroded.
Was the drilling of the studs an attempt to remove them? They should come out easily, assuming proper maintenance - there's no clamping forces on the thread once the rim's off. 8 o'c looks very firmly seized, though. Perhaps that's why they were drilled off - because four of the five were seized and rounded through lack of maintenance, and you're trying to pass the buck back to the council?

Also, the rim of the disc does not show it as having hit the road. If it had, I'd expect not just edge damage, but the securing torx to have sheared.

Most likely damage from hitting a pothole would be a damaged tyre or rim. Not shearing all the bolts on a wheel where the rim is supported by that hub-centric spigot and rim centre bore. Unless it was aftermarket rims with too large a centre bore?

Also - yes, people (including you) knew it was there - but had anybody bothered to tell the council? There's no markings to show they've recorded it. What classification of road is it?

davisjunior

AdrianC said:

davisjunior said:

I hit a pothole on Friday evening in my local area in South Wales. About 15 mins later driving through a crossroads at 30mph my front driver side wheel literally came off. My van tilted and I skidded across the road and narrowly missed a parked car. My wheel carried on rolling down the hill. Luckily there was a local mobile mechanic who saw what happened and helped me out. My van is still off road with around £500 estimated damage so far. My insurance excess is £500. I’ve looked on Facebook and there seems to be a few people who have complained about potholes on that same stretch of road. I know that the pothole in question was there over Xmas as I avoided it a few times before. Could someone recommend what I should do? As I’ve had a few contrasting opinions. Some say goto the council, other say visit a solicitor or contact your car insurance.

So you knew that such a blindingly visible pothole was there, and STILL you hit it? Then you didn't stop to see if there was any damage...?

davisjunior said:

Forgot to mention that all the bolts on the wheel had snapped off due to the impact  hence why the wheel came off.

10 o'c - no thread in the hole. Was there a bolt there at all?
1 o'c - drilled off-centre...
3 o'c - definitely drilled, complete with lubricant drips. It's not rotated since that lubricant was put in.
5 o'c - looks drilled.
8 o'c - looks drilled, heavily corroded.
Was the drilling of the studs an attempt to remove them? They should come out easily, assuming proper maintenance - there's no clamping forces on the thread once the rim's off. 8 o'c looks very firmly seized, though. Perhaps that's why they were drilled off - because four of the five were seized and rounded through lack of maintenance, and you're trying to pass the buck back to the council?

Also, the rim of the disc does not show it as having hit the road. If it had, I'd expect not just edge damage, but the securing torx to have sheared.

Most likely damage from hitting a pothole would be a damaged tyre or rim. Not shearing all the bolts on a wheel where the rim is supported by that hub-centric spigot and rim centre bore. Unless it was aftermarket rims with too large a centre bore?

Also - yes, people (including you) knew it was there - but had anybody bothered to tell the council? There's no markings to show they've recorded it. What classification of road is it?

AdrianC said:

davisjunior said:

I hit a pothole on Friday evening in my local area in South Wales. About 15 mins later driving through a crossroads at 30mph my front driver side wheel literally came off. My van tilted and I skidded across the road and narrowly missed a parked car. My wheel carried on rolling down the hill. Luckily there was a local mobile mechanic who saw what happened and helped me out. My van is still off road with around £500 estimated damage so far. My insurance excess is £500. I’ve looked on Facebook and there seems to be a few people who have complained about potholes on that same stretch of road. I know that the pothole in question was there over Xmas as I avoided it a few times before. Could someone recommend what I should do? As I’ve had a few contrasting opinions. Some say goto the council, other say visit a solicitor or contact your car insurance.

So you knew that such a blindingly visible pothole was there, and STILL you hit it? Then you didn't stop to see if there was any damage...?

davisjunior said:

Forgot to mention that all the bolts on the wheel had snapped off due to the impact  hence why the wheel came off.

10 o'c - no thread in the hole. Was there a bolt there at all?
1 o'c - drilled off-centre...
3 o'c - definitely drilled, complete with lubricant drips. It's not rotated since that lubricant was put in.
5 o'c - looks drilled.
8 o'c - looks drilled, heavily corroded.
Was the drilling of the studs an attempt to remove them? They should come out easily, assuming proper maintenance - there's no clamping forces on the thread once the rim's off. 8 o'c looks very firmly seized, though. Perhaps that's why they were drilled off - because four of the five were seized and rounded through lack of maintenance, and you're trying to pass the buck back to the council?

Also, the rim of the disc does not show it as having hit the road. If it had, I'd expect not just edge damage, but the securing torx to have sheared.

Most likely damage from hitting a pothole would be a damaged tyre or rim. Not shearing all the bolts on a wheel where the rim is supported by that hub-centric spigot and rim centre bore. Unless it was aftermarket rims with too large a centre bore?

Also - yes, people (including you) knew it was there - but had anybody bothered to tell the council? There's no markings to show they've recorded it. What classification of road is it?

Hello Adrian

It was dark at the time so I took the van straight to a mechanic (where I was driving to at the time).

ive not long had the van and I immediately contacted the garage who I got it off and they said it was the pothole, I’m not blaming the council. The (pothole) area has been reported as there have been a few incidents on that road.

Regarding the drilling and the bolts you’d have to ask the mechanic but he managed to get them all out. Some where easier than others.

AdrianC

davisjunior said:

ive not long had the van and I immediately contacted the garage who I got it off and they said it was the pothole, I’m not blaming the council. The (pothole) area has been reported as there have been a few incidents on that road.

Regarding the drilling and the bolts you’d have to ask the mechanic but he managed to get them all out. Some where easier than others.

You are blaming the council. That's exactly what you're doing.
Councils have a sliding time period to repair damage after it's been reported - how long depends on what the priority of the road is.
You're saying they failed to repair that pothole within the timescales allowed after they knew it was there.

And if your only evidence is "But the garage said", a photo or two of a random pothole some undefined time later and a distance away from the failure, and a photo half-way through some ongoing mechanicing, then you aren't getting anywhere...

davisjunior

Sliding time ?

I’ve just seen one complaint from August 2020

davisjunior

It’s a busy high street.

 What if the council were actually at fault?