Pothole and flat brand new tire...

H3llR4iser

Hi all,

Been hit by an absurd string of events the last few days, ranging from getting hit in the knee by the rod of an elliptical machine in the gym to having to retest for the NCT because a lightbulb failed on the way there (checked it the night before and was ok, arrive at the centre and it wasn't lighting up anymore).

Icing on the cake, I hit a pothole on my way back from the NCT and the involved tire deflated in the car park over the morning. I know damn well the wheel or more likely the tire itself might be damaged; Problem is, in a porfect episode of "Murphy's perverse revenge" the tire is brand new, fitted on Friday. The pothole was filled with water and hidden behind one of those silly speedbumps (which I suspect have been build by the residents as they are randomly occurring on the street in question).

Is there any "road fund" or similar to which a claim can be filled? It's more a matter of principle than anything really, but still having a burst/flat tire after spending over 300 euro to get the car ready for the NCT and a few other bits fixed, it feels like a royal PIA.

Anan1

Are you sure that the tyre (or wheel) actually need replacing? AFAIK you can claim for pothole damage if the council have repaired the pothole and the repair has failed.

mickdw

The council are not liable for any damage caused by random potholes around the country side UNLESS you can show / prove that they were directly negligent.
So basically, if you damage car on some pothole that the council have not been near in months, you get nothing unless you could prove they were repeatedly told about a dangerous pothole and failed to act - even then its on dodgy ground.
You can claim though and get paid if for example the council left some defective works which caused the damage such as road works with poor signage or potholes that occured in a road repair area or if they filled a pothole and it was washed out again the next day, you could claim defective works. Also with stuff like poorly formed ramps, the council would have a case to answer
In other words, they have to have had a hand in causing the problem.

Furious_George

I am so sick of the state of the roads at the minute in Galway city. There are so many potholes and sunken manhole covers and generally terrible roads in the city centre and suburbs. Its expensive enough to keep a car on the road without having to worry about damage such as the OP experienced. I can only imagine how bad some of the rural roads are.

Are Dublin city roads bad at all or are they being maintained?

kneemos

Furious_George wrote: »

I am so sick of the state of the roads at the minute in Galway city. There are so many potholes and sunken manhole covers and generally terrible roads in the city centre and suburbs. Its expensive enough to keep a car on the road without having to worry about damage such as the OP experienced. I can only imagine how bad some of the rural roads are.

Are Dublin city roads bad at all or are they being maintained?

Seems like building a manhole is a lost art,sinking covers are a common problem round here as well.

H3llR4iser

I did not have the tire checked yet, if I am lucky it will only have moved or detached from the rim and needs a refit; I had stopped behind a parked car to allow incoming traffic through as they had a free lane and right of way, the speedbump was right in front of the parked car. I restarted, went around the parked car and pulled back to the left going down the speedbump and bang, hit the hole - was probably doing 20 or 25 km/h.

The pothole was new, I drive on that road every day and it wasn't there yesterday, so no hope. What's really annoying is that the hole was hidden in a bit of water that always collects behind the speedbump; I don't know if I give the idea clearly, but the ramp is laid down in a way that lets a bit of standing water to collect just behind it.

The point is that this is in a residential area around Cork and these speedbumps seem to pop up overnight and in the most random fashion (e.g. two before a specific house, then none for the rest of the road), which leads me to suspect they're actually put there by the "law abiding, neighbourhood friendly citizens" living in the area (in other word, overzealous self important holier-than-thou arseholes).

mickdw

Id throw a letter into the council if you do end up paying for a damaged wheel or tyre. The case I would make is that the speed ramp is constructed in a manner that has directly caused flood water to build up at that specific location and as such is resulting in water damage to the road. A proper study should be carried out prior to ramps being considered. It should include, traffic speed, traffic numbers etc. A study should also look at ramp location to ensure there are no road safety issues with the installation. In this case, it appears that there was a lack of care in either the picking of location or the design of the ramp and associated drainage. That puts the liability on the ramp installer - well at least you can argue that it does as single saying you hit a pothole will get you nowhere.