Potholes cost £1m a month in car damages

POTHOLES ARE costing drivers and insurers at least £1m a month in total due to massive car repair bills, according to estimates from the AA.

The motoring organisation said the number of pothole-related claims it had seen during the first four months of 2018 alone was more than for the whole of 2017.

Based on its share of Britain’s car insurance market, the broker estimated that nationally, there will have been more than 4,200 claims for pothole damage so far this year compared with just over 3,500 estimated claims across last year.

It described the number of potholes as an “epidemic” and a “national embarrassment”. With an estimated average repair bill of about £1,000, the total this year so far comes to “an eye-watering” £4.2m, it said, or more than £1m per month, where drivers consider they have no option but to make an insurance claim.

Janet Connor, the AA’s director of insurance, said: “In most cases the damage caused by a pothole – a ruined tyre or even two tyres and perhaps a wheel rim – doesn’t justify making an insurance claim given that it is likely to lead to the loss of your excess and no-claim bonus. So the claims we are seeing are clearly much worse than that.

“Drivers are hitting potholes and ruining their suspension, steering, the underbody of the car, breaking axles and occasionally being knocked off course and hitting other vehicles, kerbs or a lamp-post.”

A Highways England spokeswoman said: “Safety is at the centre of everything we do, which is why we set stringent standards for pothole repairs.”