Ouch & Double Ouch

[paulstevens]

At about 07:30 on Tuesday 2nd Feb 2010 I was travelling along the A323 going towards Guilford (Ash Road into Aldershot Road) when whilst I was going over the flyover above the A331, I unavoidably drove into a very large and deep pothole (I think that Al Qaeda misplaced an IED!) whilst travelling within the rush hour traffic at around 40mph ish. I pulled over as soon as I could, to check my wheels as I was convinced that at the very least I must have damaged them. It didn't appear there was any damage, that was until I drove in a straight line, the steering wheel was around 3" low left; bugger I thought, there goes the wheel alignment. Carried onto work, parked the car and as I walked away, I looked back, and I thought "the car looks like it is lower on the drivers side". Checked all the gaps from tyre to wheel arch and it was apparent that the rear right was sitting about 4" low, front left sitting high, darn I thought !!!!. Decided to chance driving it back to my local OPC (Guildford to Bournemouth around 90miles). I was about 5miles from the OPC, following a plod panda car, when from underneath the plod car a huge log about 3" in diameter and about 6' long appeared. I was amongst traffic so could not stamp on the brakes or swerve, so I had to drive over it. I was just thinking to myself I had got away with it, when there was a huge bang from the back end! I took the chance to carry on driving, whilst watching all the guages. Finally got to the OPC without further issue. They put it up on the ramps and it turns out that the log ripped a big hole in two of the under trays and bent a suspension cross stay (decided not to bother with a lottery ticket).
The damage from the pothole was also very severe, and if I had known how bad, I certainly would not have driven it anywhere. The most visible damage was the rear coil spring broken in two places, plus both top and bottom bushes busted, all front rod ends are damaged. How about some guesses on the total damage costing incVAT??
.................................................. £9120 [&o]
I have contacted Surrey Council and registered a claim. My car insurance is paying, but I want to avoid paying my excess and using one of my protected no claims, but it appears that unless the pothole had been reported more than 48hrs prior to my claim, then I have no chance of winning a claim. I'm not sure how you can prove if there has been a report prior, but apparently my insurance will chase this.
Sorry for the long email, I just feel the need (being a delicate petal) to get emotional closure by writing to you sympathetic souls in Porsche land [:'(]
Be careful out there, the roads are "really sh**e" as we say in Hampshire, well some of us do anyway []

Paul

 

[blueSL]

Paul

What incredibly bad luck, very sorry. Is it all stuff they can "just" unscrew and replace or is there metal bashing and paintwork as well?

£9120 sounds alot, any idea of the split between parts and labour?

Really bad news, dodging the pot-holes on the roads around London is like driving a dodgem...

 

[Alex L]

Tis the season...

I hit a lump of metal that looked like an exhaust box at 70mph in the middle lane of the M4 last Thu night whilst it was p***ing it down with rain. Two HUGE bangs as it went under the car.

Took it to my OPC the next day and they put it up on a lift. Turns out I was incredibly lucky as all of the damage was superficial only. The plastic undertray had a few 10cm cuts in it and a little scraping on one of the metal housings just to the side of the engine block. 30 mins labour and 150 quids worth of new undertray parts to get it back as new. It could have been sooo much worse, much as your story illustrates! I personally won't be taking my 911 out again in such weather conditions again.

 

[garyw]

Paul
I'm gutted to hear of your situation and the costs!! sadly you are not the only one I know of in a similar situation at the moment..

I've only ever lost a rear tyre and wheel to a pot hole and never had anything back form the council...

I was told though to wait until you claim from the Council- well at Least 48 hours until after a 'friend' has reported the pot hole first []

garyw

 

[adrian996]

Sorry to hear your news - it's not just Hampshire, south Wales is riddled with huge potholes at the moment! I haven't driven my car for weeks as it would be like driving around bollards all the time!
I would suggest getting back to that location ASAP and taking a good few pictures of that pothole - before they fill it in! If you can stick some sort of measuring guide next to it without getting yourself run over then I would also try and do this. This will give some sort of idea of how big the hole is in your pics. Take as many pics from as many angles as you can. Take someone with you if you can so that one of you can take the pics whilst the other one keeps an eye on the traffic.

Years ago, I drove both my nearside tyres off the edge of the road on a country lane left hand corner. It was full of water and I couldn't see it. The edge of the road had literally fallen away due to erosion and a shear edge had been left on the tarmac with about a 9 inch fall under it. Both the inside walls of front and rear nearside tyres were ripped apart - but amazingly no other damage was done. I was a lot younger and naive then and I just called the council highways to tell them what had happened and that I wanted £70 for two new tyres, please. Within hours they had gone there and filled the hole in and denied all responsibility. I didn't get a penny. If that had happened in my 911 it would have been disastrous.

Best of luck. You'll have to play tough if you want a good result. I would also consider informing the police as the incident did leave you car unroadworthy by the sounds of it. They'll give you a record number that you can then give to the council. This will make things look a lot more 'authentic'.

Adrian.

 

[polar964]

Sorry to here of your misfortune Paul. There are some bad potholes on my route to work also. It's no good councils blaming this winter for them. It years of poor and neglected maintenance. These holes don't just appear overnight. I would have thought you have a strong case for a claim. Hope your insurance fights yours case. Might be worth contacting your local MP. Could be a possible death trap if a motor cycle or cyclist were to hit it. Have you been back to take a picture?? all help with the evidence!

 

[Rob Edwards]

Sorry to hear of your damage Paul, that's really extremely bad luck indeed.
As suggested before, get some pictures showing measurements to give scale (a 12" ruler is always good) before it is rectified.
I would then contact the local council responsible for that area and tell them you will be making a claim. Make a note of who you speak to and when (time, date) so that you have a clear record of who you spoke to and when and what they said.
Best of luck.

PS - reminds me of the time I was riding my motorcycle in France on the autoroute when a large van in front threw up a shed lorry tyre - I had no time to avoid, just brace for impact. Luckily my bike at the time (Goldwing) just shuddered and carried on, but it cracked some of the fairing panels and I had black rubber marks all down the front forks. Truly a brown corduroys moment.[&:]

 

[paulstevens]

Thanks guys. I had taken pictures and have a scaleable form of measurement as the pothole was as wide as the RD of GFORD written on the road, and about as long as about a third of one of the letters. It was deeper than the profile of tyre, almost deeper than ground clearance would allow, I would estimate >3". For sure the hole would be a real issue for two wheel riders especially small wheels. This section of road has a lot of large lorries on it as well. Guess I was a bit naive and honest, to get a friend report the pothole before I contacted the council []
The bugger of it all was that I was only taking that route because my normal route to work up the M3 off at J4 was not possible as the whole of the M3 from Fleet to the M25 was stationary. Fate can be a cow sometimes!
There appears to have been no bodywork damage, just boltable stuff, but as I have adjustable suspension (PASM) I guess that if the offside struts were damaged then there lies a lump of the cost, my OPC also thought there was the possibility of both rims being bent, steering & trackrod ends damaged, various other bits that the tech could "rattle" when the car was up on the supports, so there lies another lump of money. I am awaiting a list of parts damaged, but as yet have not received that. I'll try and get the split on parts & labour, once I get it, I'll post it.
Cheers
Paul

 

[Rotorhead]

Nasty[]

But the roads most everywhere are littered with damage following the worst winter for 30 years (apparently).

Of course nobody benefits. If you claim on your insurance you pay the excess, may lose ncd, have a claim history, and it's ultimately reflected in the premiums we all pay.

Likewise, claim from the council and it comes out of their limited coffers, so other services suffer and/or council tax goes up.

Best if they can mobilise resources, around the clock, to repair and maintain the roads asap. In the meantime, take great care.

 

[Helen Goff]

[] Ouch!!

 

[okellyt]

Paul

Sorry to hear about that - truly grim. Most of us who use they Porsche's in this weather must have had pothole moment when we wondered if we'd done a tyre or scrapped an alloy but this clearly is a nasty one.

Some idiot of an MP suggested in parliament recently that councils should leave pot holies as traffic calming measures. I believe the MP was from down your way. Needless to say once the press got hold of it he was forced to apologize.

A pot hole that size is going to cause the death of a cyclist or motor biker

Last year the beast was vandalized on 3 separate occasions in places it shouldn't have been (Goodwood, Yorkshire moors, Lakes) foolishly I'd reported each incident so insurance wanted to apply 3 lots of excess even though it was the same areas. the body shop wanted to respray the whole car at about £8k. That is why I now have the body kit - it worked out cheaper........

Fingers crossed it doesn't work out as expensive as first thought.

 

[adrian996]

Paul: just one other thought - I think that you'd be wise to get a second opinion from a good indi about the cost to repair. It's worth remembering that most OPC's are desperately short of income right now and are trying to raise revenue however they can. It could be a genuine estimate of the repair - but you could be getting shafted by your OPC at a time when you're clearly distressed about the whole event?! [&:] Shop around, just in case they're taking advantage of your situation.

 

[paulstevens]

Thanks Adrian996, unfortunately everything is in the process of repair, hopefully I get the car back by the end of next week [&:]. Also, I wanted to maintain my Porsche history/guarentee etc.
Cheers
Paul

 

[snarf]

Paul, sorry to hear of your woes, as I know to my own cost one misfortune is all too often followed closely by others - as the saying goes trouble comes in threes.

I remember a TV feature on potholes and how to claim compensation, I think it was Fifth Gear but I just took a look at their web site and couldn't spot it but there is a lot of advise on the web should you need it.

 

[polar964]

ORIGINAL: snarf

Paul, sorry to hear of your woes, as I know to my own cost one misfortune is all too often followed closely by others - as the saying goes trouble comes in threes.

I remember a TV feature on potholes and how to claim compensation, I think it was Fifth Gear but I just took a look at their web site and couldn't spot it but there is a lot of advise on the web should you need it.

Now's there's a good idea! perhaps the Top Gear team might be interested in your story! With Clarkson on your side you're sure to get a result !!

 

[Robin M]

Horrible tale of woe. Hope it gets fixed properly and your luck improves.

Our local Council stateb that from date of reciving a report of a pothole they have 14 days to repair it and will only consider a claim if you can prove it is still unrepaired after 14 days.

About time our Car tax was used on our roads. I think there seems to be a national outcry in the papers on the state of the roads at the moment but it will die down and be forgotten sadly.

 

[drmark]

That's a ridiculous amount of money - just ask them what they are charging for the 2 new wheels. My OPC wanted over £1000 for one rear 19 rim (no tyre) - I ended up getting four new 19 Carerra Sports from the factory (with new Mich PS2s) for £2500 in the end.
My bet is an indy would do the same work for around half the money. I know it's an insurance job, but guess who pays the premiums....

 

[tcs17_tim]

Sorry to hear of your damage.

On similar vein to some of the comments above my kids were delayed by about an hour on their school bus tonight, they were lead to believe that a motorbike accident had occurred ahead of them and a pothole was the main theory by those present. They saw air ambulance and CPR being undertaken on the victim, obviously serious.......

 

[berty987]

Sorry to hear of your distress, I hope the car is fixed and soon back on the road. My wife hit a pot hole in her car a few years back wrecking the front wheel and tyre. She called me at work and asked what to do, I called the RAC out to her , who saw both the car and the pot hole and not only wrote a report but also changed the spare over for her too. The reason for calling the RAC was two fold, firstly its an independant statement on the damage and the cause , secondly they validated the car was safe to continue driving.

A few letters to the local highways authority , pictures (including measurments) and the correct wording - "legally hazardous" and a full payment was made to cover the costs. Its worth noting however , that the compensation is always made as a good will gesture and never admitting liability. With the recent bout of bad weather I suspect the local councils are inundated with claims so it may take a while to even get an initial response.

 

[paulstevens]

Guys,

Bit of an update, the insurance company have OK'd all of the repairs, and I ended up with a bit of bonus. As both offside rims and tyres were damaged they will replace with new, all four rims and tyres. Not sure why all four rims? but as the offside tyres were damaged in the impact, and as I was going to have to replace my tyres in about a month, they agreed to change not just the two offsides, but the two nearside tyres as well. The other bonus is that they will also replace both nearside shocks in line with the full offside suspension rebuild, to ensure I have the same age/use shocks on all four wheels. I guess the £500 excess is sort of worth a new set of rubber (close to £900), but I am still chasing the council (as are my insurance company, I hope!) to try and at least recover my excess, we'll see[X(]

Once I get a list of the parts I will post again.

Cheers

Paul