Pothole and Council Incident claim!

sujsuj

I just recently had an accident due to road pothole, in fact I nearly lost control after puncture after falling to a pothole. I am just collating information to submit incident claim. When this incident happened just me and my son was in the car. Incident happened just 100 meters away from home, so I just driven car back to my driveway as the country road is narrow and dangerous to stop there.

Now I need to file lots of information for this claim. I gone back and took some photos of the area. Now I need to find a witness. !! Can I file my teenager son as witness..? He was the only person know what happened on that day. 

 Any other inputs experience on this highly appreciated. thanks.

Ayr_Rage

A puncture and NEARLY losing control is not an accident, it's a puncture.

As it is so close to home, go back with a ruler, tape measure and camera and record the depth and extent of the offending hole.

In my area you can go on the road defect reporting site and check if and when the pothole has been reported, suggest you check that and screenshot evidence.

You will need the exact location, use a map app and pin it and report it too.

DullGreyGuy

sujsuj said:

I just recently had an accident due to road pothole, in fact I nearly lost control after puncture after falling to a pothole. I am just collating information to submit incident claim. When this incident happened just me and my son was in the car. Incident happened just 100 meters away from home, so I just driven car back to my driveway as the country road is narrow and dangerous to stop there.

Now I need to file lots of information for this claim. I gone back and took some photos of the area. Now I need to find a witness. !! Can I file my teenager son as witness..? He was the only person know what happened on that day. 

 Any other inputs experience on this highly appreciated. thanks.

Anyone can be a witness, most insurers/sophisticated third parties will dismiss the witness statement of a close relative, friend etc as clearly biased but ultimately that's for a judge to decide.

Witnesses don't really come into pothole claims though, it all comes down to if the council knew about it, if they did then had they taken reasonable action in the time since they knew about it and if you cannot prove they knew about it, then have they followed their own procedure for inspections to have found out about it. 

Being 100m from your home its presumably somewhere you travel often and given you hit it presumably its very new which means the odds are stacked against any claim being successful. You can only claim for what did happen not for what could have happened.

elsien

You need to prove that it is negligence in order to have a successful claim so, for example that someone has reported it before and they haven’t done anything in a timely manner.

As it’s so close to your house had you already reported it to the council? Or anyone else in your road that you are aware of?

Dave_5150

Why didn't you drive round it if it was large enough to cause a puncture?

Ectophile

Dave_5150 said:

Why didn't you drive round it if it was large enough to cause a puncture?

Why do people keep asking this stupid question?  Perhaps it was dark.  Perhaps the pothole was full of water and just looked like a little puddle.  Perhaps something was coming the other way and there was nowhere to swerve to.  People don't deliberately hit potholes.

sevenhills

sujsuj said:

I just recently had an accident due to road pothole, in fact I nearly lost control after puncture after falling to a pothole. I am just collating information to submit incident claim. When this incident happened just me and my son was in the car. Incident happened just 100 meters away from home, so I just driven car back to my driveway as the country road is narrow and dangerous to stop there.

Now I need to file lots of information for this claim. I gone back and took some photos of the area. Now I need to find a witness. !! Can I file my teenager son as witness..? He was the only person know what happened on that day. 

 Any other inputs experience on this highly appreciated. thanks.

If the pothole is close to your home, have you noticed it before and reported it to the council?

Or have you now reported it, so that someone else does not suffer the same plight?

Dave_5150

Ectophile said:

Dave_5150 said:

Why didn't you drive round it if it was large enough to cause a puncture?

Why do people keep asking this stupid question?  Perhaps it was dark.  Perhaps the pothole was full of water and just looked like a little puddle.  Perhaps something was coming the other way and there was nowhere to swerve to.  People don't deliberately hit potholes.

Why do people keep thinking its the councils fault they drove into a pothole? Get the puncture repaired and report it to the council. Going to court will cost more than the puncture repair. 

You are unlikely to prove the council was negligent. They don't have the funding for a perfect road network and their Code Of Practice will prioritise the defects that pose the greatest saftey risk.

sujsuj

sevenhills said:

sujsuj said:

I just recently had an accident due to road pothole, in fact I nearly lost control after puncture after falling to a pothole. I am just collating information to submit incident claim. When this incident happened just me and my son was in the car. Incident happened just 100 meters away from home, so I just driven car back to my driveway as the country road is narrow and dangerous to stop there.

Now I need to file lots of information for this claim. I gone back and took some photos of the area. Now I need to find a witness. !! Can I file my teenager son as witness..? He was the only person know what happened on that day. 

 Any other inputs experience on this highly appreciated. thanks.

If the pothole is close to your home, have you noticed it before and reported it to the council?

Or have you now reported it, so that someone else does not suffer the same plight?

Yes it is 200 m away from home. I haven't noticed it or reported it. There  is  deep narrow  ditch formed & during rain making road edge soft and damaged creating bigger ditch!

sujsuj

Any way I submitted a claim to Council..I am more careful now.

Mildly_Miffed

sujsuj said:

sevenhills said:

sujsuj said:

I just recently had an accident due to road pothole, in fact I nearly lost control after puncture after falling to a pothole. I am just collating information to submit incident claim. When this incident happened just me and my son was in the car. Incident happened just 100 meters away from home, so I just driven car back to my driveway as the country road is narrow and dangerous to stop there.

Now I need to file lots of information for this claim. I gone back and took some photos of the area. Now I need to find a witness. !! Can I file my teenager son as witness..? He was the only person know what happened on that day. 

 Any other inputs experience on this highly appreciated. thanks.

If the pothole is close to your home, have you noticed it before and reported it to the council?

Or have you now reported it, so that someone else does not suffer the same plight?

Yes it is 200 m away from home. I haven't noticed it or reported it. There  is  deep narrow  ditch formed & during rain making road edge soft and damaged creating bigger ditch!

So you drove off the edge of the tarmac, only 1-200m from your own home?

I presume that you were going relatively slowly at the time, since you were about to turn or park.