Damage Caused By Pothole - Legal Options?

[AzzurrA]

Hi All,

Has anyone had any luck with taking on the council, in terms of getting them to pay for repairs to their car, due to damage caused by poorly maintained roads, and won?

Reason i ask is i was driving home from dinner tonight, and there was a large pothole in the middle of the highway... hit the pothole, which sent the car slewing sideways a bit... i caught that, and noticed the steeringwheel was at 90 degrees to the left... i thought my alignment must be out... until the rear end of the car started walking all over the place... at this stage, i was starting to slow down and pull over, so i put on the brakes, and that sent the rear of the car swaying around something shocking... managed to pull it onto the shoulder, and found that the rear steering arm (i think?) has snapped off, and is laying on the ground... This would be as well as buckling my rims, throwing my alignment out, as well as possibly causing stress fractures to mounts, and destroying my 2 day old tyres....

Now, i need to know how to go about chasing the council to get them to pay to get this repaired... as i pay my taxes, i do not expect to have my car damaged by sub-standard quality roads, which is what my tax money should be going to maintaining...

Anyone?

[chaos]

I can ask a mate at work, we dont deal in this sort of law but he's got degree's commin out of his ears.

Best bet is to contact the council first and ask about compensation and if they laugh, tell them you will be seeking legal advice. I mean judging by your description your life and the lives of your passengers (if any) aswell as other road users near you were at risk from something that should not happen at all. especially on a highway. If they still dont budge then i would be going after legal advice, obviously from someone who studies traffic law etc.

[AzzurrA]

by the way, i am going back soon (when the traffic dies down a bit) to get photos of said pothole to use as evidence

[[HOTNXR]]

YES make sure you take photos, keep this updated because my town is full of potholes and my suspension isnt at its best and im guessing one really bad knock and its all gone...

ALSO it once rained really hard and we had MASSIVE potholes on the high ways... what did they do? fill it up with gravel. didnt take long for it to become a pot hole again. but they have fixed the ones on the highway... but not the ones in the suburban area's

[hijaked]

i have a buckeld rim... could you please let me know where to drive oh some tyers would be alright too!

[AzzurrA]

sure, drive down the Gateway motorway in Brisbane....

Oh, and to make matters worse, the towtruck hit a pothole on the way back to my place, nearly taking IT out as well! :|

[Get-Reddy]

So it was on the Gateway on the bridge, going north or south?

[AzzurrA]

Not on the bridge... it was on the stretch, heading north (Towards sunshine coast) between the new truck stop/service station (Caltex i think?) at nudgee, and the Bicentennial Way/Entertainment centre exit...

Near the dump there...

[Redback]

worst of luck

[Fitzpatrick Speed Works]

make sure your car is all legal is an important factor, and that you right down all the events get them signed by a partial witness to you writing down the log of events with the date, its not just your word and you making up a date. Also bring someone with you two witness the potholes when you photograph it and get statements from passengers if there where any. Get a workshop or similar to inspect the damage and provide a quote on repairs and something that indicates the damage was a direct results of the pothole would help alot. If you can do all this and show up to court with it all you have a chance as you have good documentation and the judge can see you are serious etc!!! Good luck

[Bass Junky]

Okay here's what you do.

I've put in claims to the council twice and both times been successful.

Take photos of the scene. Make sure you take something for scale. I used my shoes. Put the shoe in the hole, next to the hole etc etc.

Take photos of your rims, suspension components etc. Again, make sure to clearly show the damage done.

Take your car to your mechanic, get more photos. Get your mechanic to quote on the repair. Get the quote in writing.

Make sure not to get too fancy and repair anything that isn't required.

Make sure to include a wheel alignment.

If this was on a highway, you will need to contact the road authority. Vicroad in Melbourne, not sure about QLD.

They will make you explain how you think it's their fault. Say things like the damage is too large to be left go unrepaired. If there is evidence of the hole being filled before, or that section of the road being in a bad state, get photos of that too.

In the end with my repairs, one from a council lawn mower spitting a rock into my front bar, and one from a MASSIVE pot hole which smashed my front bar into the ground, I was compensated the exact amount I applied for.

The council paid for the rock damage via cheque.

A Gas company (who was responsible for the pot hole) paid all the suppliers and workshops to repair my car directly.

Don't leave it too long either. Strike whilst the iron is hot.

BASS OUT

[CONRAD]

Different circumnstance, but anyway a few years back I was travelling along in ye'ol Adelaide town when a surge of wind swung out a link of those orange and white protection barriers accross from the other side of the road and hit my car (it didn't have any ballast in it - having said that I've never really seen any filled with water or the like).

That was my old gtst with a vielside body kit on and it smashed up the front left hand corner and skit skirt pretty bad.

I just went straight to the police office filled out a report then I went to a crash repair joint and got a quote then just wrote the council a letter expecting them to pay for my bodykit damage, referenceing police report, quote etc.

Got an apology letter from the concils legal department and was sent a check, It didn;t even take that long.

Good luck mate

[Dee 33]

Nice to know things like this tend to work out in the end

[Big Rizza]

I haven't claimed for pot hole damage myself, but I remember an issue of motor (or was it wheels?) magazine where one of their long term test vehicles hit a large pot hole and buckled the rim. They took photos of the rim, the surrounding area and detailed shots of the pot hole itself, and the council paid for the damage after the evidence was provided. Apparently the pot hole was repaired within a week of their claim as well.

I would definitely recommend seeking action, as not only are you out of pocket if it is left unchecked, the pothole may also claim other victims as well.

[AzzurrA]

I called Brisbane city council first thing this morning, and they told me to call Main Roads, as the highway is not their concern... so i called Main roads, and they said to speak to the depot that services that area, so i called that depot, and they said to speak to this lady and gave me her number... Now, she worked for the contractors who actually fix the road, and she explained that they have a 24 hour period in which to fix potholes, and she said the one that got me was reported last night, and was fixed today (i checked on the way home from work today... its been patched up)... and as it was fixed within a 24 hour period, it is not their problem, and is Main Roads problem.... However, she got me to send her an email with the details of the incident etc, which she then fowarded on to the district director for main roads (or something like that). She said that it may take around a month for anything to start happening, as main roads are very slow with things like this...

Anyway, also called RACQ to get the car towed to the workshop, and they said that they would, but it would be classed as an 'insurance' tow, as hitting the pothole broke something, they therefore class that as a 'collision'... they wanted to charge me like $250 to tow the car 5km down the road... what a joke... they told me to call the insurance company and find out what i have to do, so i did (not telling them who i was etc, of course) and they said that they can 'try' to claim from Main roads, but usually they aren't successful, in which case i would have to pay the full excess and lose a rating... um, NO THANKS... especially for something that is not my fault..

so i got the car towed at my expense to the workshop, and am now waiting for a report saying what needs fixing (oh, and workshop is taking photos of all damage etc)

I think i'm just going to get it all fixed, keep all receipts etc, and then submit that to Main Roads with a letter of demand (if nothing is sorted out within a 'reasonable' timeframe)

[[HOTNXR]]

i hope everything goes well!

STICK IT TO THE MAN!

[BHDave]

At least it is still a government owned road.

I tried a while back when a pretty big depresion open up in an M5 onramp. As the road is privately funded and maintained you have to approach the company, rather than the RTA (though i tried them first).

I got nowhere.