Key workers plagued by pothole roads

POTHOlE-RiDDEN roads caused hundreds of key workers’ vehicles to break down during the lockdown, figures show.

RAC patrols were called out to 1,766 pothole-related incidents between April and June, even though traffic levels had dropped by 60 per cent – those still on the roads were mainly key workers.

The motoring group said it was surprised by the high number of accidents at a time when the roads were the quietest they’ve been since the mid-1950s.

Potholes accounted for 1 per cent of all breakdown call-outs from April to June, or around 20 incidents a day. This is the same proportion as were attended over the same period in 2019.

Many local authorities had promised to use the downtime to improve the state of the roads.

The RAC said the evidence of the high number of pothole incidents proves that the state of the roads ‘ has not significantly improved’.

Due to lockdown, the number of pothole-related accidents from the last three months is down on the first quarter of the year when patrols rescued 3,426 drivers who suffered pothole damage, such as broken shock absorbers.

The figures will put pressure on the Government which has pledged to spend £2.5billion on repairing 50million potholes over the next five years.