Pothole - Claim? (pics)

Hoggy101

Yesterday hit a crater sized pothole on main road to midleton (co cork) cominig from the Cork city direction just after Carrigtwohill.

Anyway damaged not only tyre but cracked alloy aswell. Reckon its gonna cost me 300+ euro.

Happened to me at quarter to one in the day. I passed the same site 3 hours later and sadly saw another car stuck at the side of the road changing there having hit the same hole.

Seemingly more cars have also done damage there as it was on radio after warning people about it.

This is no regional road, this the the N25 national primary between Cork and Rosslare. The pothole has since been filled.

Have i any chance of claiming succesfully?

Berty

That is called a joint and you should take the matter up with whoever is contracted by the local authority to put it down.

The council are not responsible for that.

teednab-el

This is typical of Irish roads. We have NCT tests to determine if our cars are safe enough to be on the road but we have no road safety tests on the roads themselves.

Unbelievable.

triple-M

wouldnt call that a crater sized pothole,this is a crater sized pothole;)
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/03/30/article-0-04292B72000005DC-780_634x476.jpg

but anyways I was in a similar situation near dublin airport I took pics of the offending pothole and my damaged wheel got a printout of the cost from the repair comapny sent it off to the council who forwarded it onto the contractor responsible for the road,didnt hear a thing for two months them,bam!! cheque and apology letter covering the entire cost

Ste05

Berty wrote: »

That is called a joint and you should take the matter up with whoever is contracted by the local authority to put it down.

The council are not responsible for that.

I used to work for a construction company and part of my job would be to handle claims of this nature, either they or the council are liable for this, the contract between them will say who is, normally it'll be the Contractor though.

Ring up or send a letter to the contractors who are doing the work (and copy it to the Council), if you don't know who they are, just ring/ send a letter to the Council and they'll pass the buck onto the contractor.

In the letter explain in detail what happened and what damage was caused and include invoices/estimates for repairs. AND be ready to chase them up about it, cos alot of people just give up on these small claims and they sometimes just go away.

One thing that will be helpful is if you blame the council as well, as then they'll chase up the contractor to get this small claim taken over by them. these kind of things can come up in monthly site meetings, it's just another little thing to hopefully get it sorted for you. Also, the photo's are what will win this for you.

One other important thing, report the accident to someone (contractor or council) tomorrow, just to let them be aware of it and take the name of the person who you told.

If in doubt go talk to a solicitor, as all of the above is just waffle from some dope on the internet and should be viewed as such.

Ste05

triple-M wrote: »

but anyways I was in a similar situation near dublin airport I took pics of the offending pothole and my damaged wheel got a printout of the cost from the repair comapny sent it off to the council who forwarded it onto the contractor responsible for the road,didnt hear a thing for two months them,bam!! cheque and apology letter covering the entire cost

LOL, this basically is exactly what I was talking about.

The council were more than likely asking the contractor if this claim had been dealt with.... now, don't get me wrong I hate Local Councils, but they are good at this kind of anal stuff... it's just used as a tool to bash contractors over the head and as a way to withhold monthly or milestone payments. They don't really care about these claims or the people..

Yellowblackbird

Berty wrote: »

The council are not responsible for that.

Yes they are.

They can commission a job on the road. It might be contracted and sub contracted etc, but its their road. They are in receipt of your road taxes to maintain roads. And if they leave a big Fxuck off hole in your road and don't close it or even put up warning signs then they are 100% liable to damages to your vehicle and personal injury you suffered as a result of said gross negligence. Sue the incompetent, lazy, arrogant bastards and they may possibly learn to in and do their job that they are well paid for (by you)

Berty

Yellowblackbird wrote: »

Yes they are.

They can commission a job on the road. It might be contracted and sub contracted etc, but its their road. They are in receipt of your road taxes to maintain roads. And if they leave a big Fxuck off hole in your road and don't close it or even put up warning signs then they are 100% liable to damages to your vehicle and personal injury you suffered as a result of said gross negligence. Sue the incompetent, lazy, arrogant bastards and they may possibly learn to in and do their job that they are well paid for (by you)

You're getting direct and indirect responsibilty mixed up. The council are not directly responsible for the construction, merely responsible for the contractor they sourced for the N25. The contractor has to be ultimately responsible for the sustainability of the joint and in this case because the joint is steep there is a higher tendancy for large vehicles to gouge(sp) a groove or pothole into the blacktop causing said hole. The contractor has a duty of care to the driving public however these things happen with joints as I worked for a contractor myself.

100% is not possible either because of non malfeasance. They cannot be everywhere all the time. If they repaired a road but repaired it badly then I could understand.

Now I have driven on the middleton bypass this week and the road is BAD. When its dark there are no lane markings and car are all over the place and you go up and down joints constantly. The speed limit is lower and an savvy motorist who respects their car will adhere to the limits. The pothole probably cannot be avoided but they are hardly incompetent, lazy and arrogant because they are trying to fix that awful road.

If they didn't somebody would be here complaining they never bothered to fix the N25 and are just wasting the tax payers money on statue's of Roy Keane or some sh*t.

Ste05

Berty wrote: »

You're getting direct and indirect responsibilty mixed up. The council are not directly responsible for the construction, merely responsible for the contractor they sourced for the N25. The contractor has to be ultimately responsible for the sustainability of the joint and in this case because the joint is steep there is a higher tendancy for large vehicles to gouge(sp) a groove or pothole into the blacktop causing said hole. The contractor has a duty of care to the driving public however these things happen with joints as I worked for a contractor myself.

(i) he didn't say they were responsible for the construction. They are however responsible for the roads. There's a difference between these, if the road is open to the public then it's the council (or in particular their "Engineer") who would have certified it as safe to open.

(ii) Contractors are only responsible for this kind of thing during construction and for a period after construction is completed, (known as the Maintenance period, and is usually for a year) then it reverts back to the council. It's the council that certify the work as safe for use by the public, it's nowhere near as black and white as you're making out, but it's certainly not correct to say "contractor has to be ultimately responsible for the sustainability of the joint", the length of their responsibility will be expressly outlined in the contract between them, the Contractor assumes this responsibility during construction but it is ultimately the Council's responsibility.

(iii) the rest of this paragraph about the joint being more likely to gauge etc. may be true, but is 100% irrelevant to this discussion... it doesn't affect liability at all. If anything it increases it, because the Council/ Engineer/ Contractor will be (or ought to be) aware of this and hence should make sure it isn't a danger to the public and their property.

oldyouth

It is deemed to be a Public Nuisance and the Local Authority are liabile as your 1st port of call. They in turn will pass on the costs to their appointed contractor