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One of the most serious hazards facing both pedestrians and vehicle drivers is the presence of a pothole in the surface of the pavement or highway. A pothole accident can be responsible for serious personal injury be it following a pedestrian slip, trip and fall or as a result of a motor accident caused by a vehicles wheels being deflected or a damaged suspension. The maintenance of local pavements and highways is usually the responsibility of the highways department of the local council who are expected to have an adequate inspection and maintenance regime in place.

Inspection & Maintenance

Claims for compensation for personal injury relating to pothole accidents are normally taken up against the local council. A council is expected to regularly inspect their pavements and highways in order to identify defects and thereafter is expected to rectify faults within a reasonable of time. The council may be liable for any accident caused if they knew about the problem or pothole and had failed to act on the information.

Pavements and highways are not expected to be totally smooth and level and there is usually leeway for uneven pavements. In normal circumstances in order for an accident on a normal pavement to be actionable there must have been an uneven area with a ‘depth of trip’ of at least 2cms. Most potholes will clearly be in excess of this and it is therefore only necessary to show that the last inspection was outside of the accepted parameters or that a repair has not been effected within a reasonable time scale if the council already knew about the defect. It is a complete defence to legal action in a pothole accident claim if a local council can prove by virtue of inspection records that the location has been visited in the recent past at which time there was no evidence of any defect. The local council’s inspection records are open for public scrutiny.

Preservation of Evidence

There are some things you can do immediately to help your claim for personal injury compensation in a pothole case. You can obtain the names and addresses of witnesses who saw the accident and the pothole. You should take photographs of the pothole with references to its exact location and place a ruler or tape measure next to the pothole before taking the photo. You should also keep the shoes you were wearing at the time together with any clothing that was damaged.

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