Holy moly! my alloys a squarcle

[BigTartanJudge 0]

You are perfectly entitled to make a claim for damage caused to your vehicle / wheels by potholes or speed-humps etc. If it's potholes, either the coucil themselves or the contractors they use to maintain roads in their locality are responsible for maintaining the roads to a safe and adequate state. If the council denies responsibility and refuses to pay out through their insurers by saying it's the contractors fault, then take it up with the roads contractor / contractors insurers.

 

And BTW, how is it the drivers fault that they get a buckled wheel from the pothole or whatever ?? Drivers can't always make evasive manoevers to avoid holes they see at the last minute :roll:

 

I had a claim about 5 years ago with Aberdeen City Council over a buckled alloy TSW Venom alloy wheel which was on my CRX at the time (sorry guys !) caused by hitting a large (roughly 80cm x 140 cm !!) pothole in the road which I could not avoid etc. I made sure that after the damage was caused I went back within the hour to photograph the hole including it's dimensions, and THEN called the council to report the damage / get a claim form sent.

 

Next day the hole had been filled in - see pics for damage and the actual hole. The council denied responsibility saying their was no evidence that the hole caused the aforementioned damge, however, I had a passenger / witness in the car at the time of the incident and had the digital images so I was in the clear. I ended up taking them to the small claims court and and was awarded £120 to replace the wheel plus court my costs. And about a month after the court case I got a cheque from the council's insurers, Zurich Municipal to cover the cost of a new wheel and court costs plus a wee bit left over :wink:

 

So yes, it is worth making a claim, just make sure you do it ASAP and get pics of the hole BEFORE it gets filled in !

[Critical_Mass 10]

RESULT. Suprisingly i got a letter today from Hanson, the councils contractor, when i had said earlier i doubt ill hear anything :lol: stroke of luck there. The matter is being looked into by them and they'll get back in touch with me.

 

So im say, GET A CLAIM IN! even if the council deny responsibility, they'll probably blame their contractors.

[Madjackal 0]

 

And BTW, how is it the drivers fault that they get a buckled wheel from the pothole or whatever ?? Drivers can't always make evasive manoevers to avoid holes they see at the last minute :roll:

 

 

So who elses falut is it if a driver hits an imanimate obect. Try claiming that one back as an insured loss! If you hit something its your fault, beleive me if seen it all when it comes to claim forms. 'my car veered of the road it wasn't me', 'it was the deer's fault it shouldn't have been there', 'he shouldn't have been parked there'. If anyone has had success claiming for something like this then great, good on ya. But as drivers we have a duty of care to keep a proper look out. So yes, if you are unable to make an appropriate evasive manouvre it is your fault!

 

Unfortunately we live in a soceity where people no longer have to take responsibility for their own action cos there's alway someone to sue.

 

One last comment while im on my soap box next time anyone moans about the cost of car insurance just have a think about why that is, the more people claim for 'compensation' for these things the more all our premiums go up. You claim off the council they just jack up the tax at the cost of everyone, you never win in the long run.

 

All this does for anyone is say 'its ok Gary it doesn't matter how you drive your CRX with venoms cos everyone else will foot the bill'

[Critical_Mass 10]

ALMOST A RESULT. Suprisingly i got a letter today from Hanson, the councils contractor, when i had said earlier i doubt ill hear anything :lol: stroke of luck there. The matter is being looked into by them and they'll get back in touch with me.

 

So im say, GET A CLAIM IN! even if the council deny responsibility, they'll probably blame their contractors.

[BigTartanJudge 0]

Yeah very good Madjackal, a pothole isn't an "inanimate object" lying in the road for a start.....it's a HOLE mate.

 

And if there is oncoming busy traffic flow how are you supposed to avoid a huge pothole in the road ??

 

And councils or the contractors they employ to do their maintenance, have "a duty of care to maintain and upkeep roads to a safe and appropriate standard for all road-users".

 

I rest my case.

 

PS. My name's not Gary and I wasn't proud of the Venom's but they came free with the car :lol:

[Madjackal 0]

Yeah very good Madjackal, a pothole isn't an "inanimate object" lying in the road for a start.....it's a HOLE mate.

 

And if there is oncoming busy traffic flow how are you supposed to avoid a huge pothole in the road ??

 

And councils or the contractors they employ to do their maintenance, have "a duty of care to maintain and upkeep roads to a safe and appropriate standard for all road-users".

 

I rest my case.

 

PS. My name's not Gary and I wasn't proud of the Venom's but they came free with the car :lol:

 

Sorry bit below the belt, since you didnt pay for them i'll let you off. :)

 

If I was the insurers who had to potentially fork out for the wheel (especially a Venom! sorry...)i would say the driver could have stopped rather than drive in to the pothole. If he saw it and couldn't stop he should have been driving at a speed reflective of his own level of driving skill, if he didn't see it he has been unwillfully negligent.

 

The whole evasive action thing is a s**t for instance, you're driving along and some drunk driver is coming at you at 75 on the wrong side of the road, you then swerve and pile into someone's house, its your fault. The evasive action you chose was a poor decision, you enterred in to collision with something! If you want to avoid potential liability in a situation like that all you can do is let him hit you, stupid but completely true.

 

Perhaps inanimate obect was a poor use of words the technical term is insured peril. Insurer's dont care what you call it, hit a bollard, post, pillar, wall, lump,dip or pothole in the road its an AD claim and its your own fault, at least in terms of legal liability.

 

Sorry about the Gary thing by the way

[.A.N.T. 0]

Just dug this one out as I hit a pothole last night and wrote off a tyre...

 

 

 

Surely though braking into a pothole is the last thing you want to be doing, you're just pushing more weight forwards onto the wheels that will take the impact. And a pothole is considerably harder to see than a bollard or speed hump.

[Critical_Mass 10]

I agree ^^

 

What IF you hit the hole and lost control of the car and mowed some poor pedestrian down, would that be your fault or the councils?

 

Also you pay your road tax for a reason, as previously said they have a DUTY to maintain the roads (they get enough money from all of us after all). There shouldnt be holes in the road FULL STOP.