Potholes are a menace, we all know that. This is a topic I have covered a few times on my site and they are definitely one of my biggest bug bears on the road. Research carried by Kwik Fit has revealed UK motorists had to cough up £684 million to cover damage to their cars caused by potholes.
Damaged car = Damaged wallet
The average repair bill came in at a total of £108.60, with the highest coming from Eastern England, amounting to £163.68 and the lowest coming Wales, which was £61.83 - less than half of Eastern England. The highest total cost of repairs per region goes to South East England with a staggering £108,149,130 coming from 941,000 drivers paying out an average of £114.93.
London had 733,000 drivers affected who had to pay an average of £124.65 for repair (total repair cost £91,368,450) with Yorks & Humber and South West England not too far behind with a total repair cost of £86,400,00 and £85,806,210 respectively from 720,000 and 721,000 drivers.
November 2015 through to January 2016 saw a large amount of rain, which was wettest Nov-Jan on record. This is believed to be a large factor for many drivers hitting potholes, with 31% of motorists stating that they thought it was a puddle only to find it was a dreaded pothole. 46% said they could not avoid the pothole without swerving towards traffic.
Roger Griggs, communication director for Kwik Fit, said: "We all understand that council budgets are stretched right across the country, but this research shows the financial burden being placed upon individual motorists. And that’s purely the repair bill - it doesn’t take into account the inconvenience to people in having their cars off the road for repairs"
Griggs then added: "One pothole can cause misery for countless motorists, so it’s vital that local authorities make it as easy as possible for people to report the presence of a pothole. But we would also encourage drivers to do their bit by reporting the ones they see and not relying on others to do it."