Pothole damage claim - is dashcam good enough evidence?

poiuyt12345

Hello all

Recently I hit a pothole and damaged the tyre and tyre pressure sensor, costing a total of £400. I still have not filled a FOI request but looks like there were not any other reports before I hit it, but two after I did.

Regardless of what the maintenance was on the road (TfL authority, not council) is dashcam footage treated as evidence? The video is very clear, I hit the pothole, straight away the chime indicating a fault sounds and subsequently a blown tyre noise can be heard. I think it is pretty much evident that the pothole caused the damage. Also have the invoice for a new tyre on the same day and pictures of the hole on the tyre and the damage on the wheel. Days later I had the car serviced and the technician told me the wheel looked like needed replacing, another £600.

I know pothole claims are tough to win but what are your thoughts in this case?

Mildly_Miffed

That certainly should be good enough evidence... but if the pothole's visible on the video, why didn't you avoid it?

That doesn't mean they're automatically liable, though, depending on the usual timescales etc.

(A grand for a wheel and tyre? What on earth is the vehicle?)

MattMattMattUK

poiuyt12345 said:

Hello all

Recently I hit a pothole and damaged the tyre and tyre pressure sensor, costing a total of £400. I still have not filled a FOI request but looks like there were not any other reports before I hit it, but two after I did.

Regardless of what the maintenance was on the road (TfL authority, not council) is dashcam footage treated as evidence? The video is very clear, I hit the pothole, straight away the chime indicating a fault sounds and subsequently a blown tyre noise can be heard. I think it is pretty much evident that the pothole caused the damage. Also have the invoice for a new tyre on the same day and pictures of the hole on the tyre and the damage on the wheel. Days later I had the car serviced and the technician told me the wheel looked like needed replacing, another £600.

I know pothole claims are tough to win but what are your thoughts in this case?

You have dashcam footage which shows you hit a stationary hazard.

You can raise a claim with TFL, but the criteria for being able to claim are very narrow, it depends on inspection schedules, reports and maintenance. They will report it to your insurance company as an at fault accident as you hit a stationary hazard and damaged your vehicle. If the costs are recoverable then your insurer will attempt to recover them from TFL, but they are unlikely to be. Without the FOI info you will not be able to work out if you have a claim.

DullGreyGuy

poiuyt12345 said:

Recently I hit a pothole and damaged the tyre and tyre pressure sensor, costing a total of £400. I still have not filled a FOI request but looks like there were not any other reports before I hit it, but two after I did.

Regardless of what the maintenance was on the road (TfL authority, not council) is dashcam footage treated as evidence? The video is very clear, I hit the pothole, straight away the chime indicating a fault sounds and subsequently a blown tyre noise can be heard. I think it is pretty much evident that the pothole caused the damage. Also have the invoice for a new tyre on the same day and pictures of the hole on the tyre and the damage on the wheel. Days later I had the car serviced and the technician told me the wheel looked like needed replacing, another £600.

I know pothole claims are tough to win but what are your thoughts in this case?

Councils, plus TFL, get to mark their own homework. They set the rules and they must follow them, if they dont you have a case. They dont have infinite funds and cannot check every mm of road every 30 seconds. TFL manages about 5% of London's roads and the rest are generally by the borough councils. Either way they are either elected or appointed by elected officials and get to decide if kids get educated, libraries stay open or roads get fixed. 

Dashcam footage is likely to show nothing or show you hit a static object, both of which are bad for you. 

Car_54

poiuyt12345 said:

Hello all

Recently I hit a pothole and damaged the tyre and tyre pressure sensor, costing a total of £400. I still have not filled a FOI request but looks like there were not any other reports before I hit it, but two after I did.

If the pothole hadn't been reported, the council can hardly have been negligent.

poiuyt12345

Mildly_Miffed said:

That certainly should be good enough evidence... but if the pothole's visible on the video, why didn't you avoid it?

There was a black patch that I thought it was a repaired pothole... Well, a pothole appeared on that new surface.

MattMattMattUK said:

You can raise a claim with TFL, but the criteria for being able to claim are very narrow, it depends on inspection schedules, reports and maintenance. They will report it to your insurance company as an at fault accident as you hit a stationary hazard and damaged your vehicle. If the costs are recoverable then your insurer will attempt to recover them from TFL, but they are unlikely to be. Without the FOI info you will not be able to work out if you have a claim.

I will make a FOI request today. Is it 100% certain they will tell my insurance? 

Car_54 said:

If the pothole hadn't been reported, the council can hardly have been negligent.

I did not see it reported on the TFL website but I will be certain when I receive the FOI information. TFL may have not been negligent if they did not know about the pothole but footage shows that it clearly damaged my tyre, how is that not enough proof?!

Ectophile

poiuyt12345 said:

I did not see it reported on the TFL website but I will be certain when I receive the FOI information. TFL may have not been negligent if they did not know about the pothole but footage shows that it clearly damaged my tyre, how is that not enough proof?!

You need to show that TFL were negligent.  That generally means that either

• They knew there was a pothole, but didn't fix it within a reasonable time, or
• They should have known that there was a pothole, but didn't because they never inspected the road.

Just providing evidence that a pothole existed isn't enough.

DullGreyGuy

poiuyt12345 said:

MattMattMattUK said:

You can raise a claim with TFL, but the criteria for being able to claim are very narrow, it depends on inspection schedules, reports and maintenance. They will report it to your insurance company as an at fault accident as you hit a stationary hazard and damaged your vehicle. If the costs are recoverable then your insurer will attempt to recover them from TFL, but they are unlikely to be. Without the FOI info you will not be able to work out if you have a claim.

I will make a FOI request today. Is it 100% certain they will tell my insurance? 

Why does it matter? You'll surely be following the terms of your policy and already informed them of the incident yourself and not be intending to try and defraud them so all your insurers will do is write back to say they already know. TFL arent going to claim you damaged the road surface so there will be no fault claim if you arent claiming for your own damages of your insurance

forgotmyname

Aside from the local authorities obligations your own evidence contradicts itself.

A technician during a service said it looked like needing replacing and yet someone fitted a tyre to the wheel prior to that service?
Just because they say it looked like it needing replacing is not exactly something that says it's dangerous and should be replaced
or just replace because it's cosmetically flawed.

poiuyt12345

forgotmyname said:

Aside from the local authorities obligations your own evidence contradicts itself.

A technician during a service said it looked like needing replacing and yet someone fitted a tyre to the wheel prior to that service?
Just because they say it looked like it needing replacing is not exactly something that says it's dangerous and should be replaced
or just replace because it's cosmetically flawed.

That's why I will be taking the car to another shop to check this.