DOUBLE TROUBLE
Pothole breakdowns up 50% already as Brits twice as likely to face damage as they were in 2006, RAC says
Pothole damage is costing Brits fortunes
CAR breakdowns due to potholes have reached 50 per cent already this year, a leading automotive services company has said.
RAC warned that Brit drivers are nearly twice as likely to suffer a pothole breakdown compared to 2006 when the company first started collecting potholes-related data.
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According to reports by the firm, drivers endured 7,904 pothole breakdowns during the first three months of 2024 as Britain’s roads continue to crumble.
Analysis from the driving services company shows it’s been far from a smooth start to the year for the nation’s drivers, with pothole-related breakdown numbers increasing by nine per cent in the last 12 months.
In this period, the RAC recorded 27,205 breakdowns, 2,299 more than the 24,906 incidents it attended between 1st April 2022 and 31st March 2023.
The company says this is a clear sign that the UK is suffering a pothole epidemic as roads continue to crumble.
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But the RAC believes drivers may have actually "dodged the pothole bullet" in what is normally the worst three months of the year for them.
According to the experts at the company, milder weather led to patrol call-out rates dropping by 22% from 10,076 last year to 7,094 in 2024.
During the winter months, sub-zero temperatures normally cause more surface deterioration as water gets into cracks in the road, freezes and expands.
In the first three months of 2024, the milder weather meant there were only seven days of frost, against the usual average of nine.
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This potentially limited the number of brand-new potholes forming, the firm claims.
RAC says it doesn’t believe the decrease in pothole-related breakdowns – which includes damaged shock absorbers, broken suspension springs and distorted wheels – is a sign of road conditions improving.
Simon Williams, the head of policy at RAC, said: "While many would rightly say the roads are terrible, we believe they would have been far worse had we not had such a mild winter.
"We feel drivers have dodged the pothole bullet as the lack of widespread sub-zero temperatures has masked the true state of our roads."
UK's most expensive potholes
- Kent County Council - £4,902,618
- Essex County Council - £1,916,448.06
- Hertfordshire County Council- £1,530,850
- Surrey County Council - £810,051
- Durham County Council - £797,785.50
- Wiltshire Council - £760,332.88
- Lancashire County Council - £709,459.43
- Staffordshire County Council - £598,148.37
- Manchester City Council - £581,100
- Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council - £558,489.27
The company says its Pothole Index, which measures the likelihood of suffering one of these call-outs, has increased, meaning drivers are even more likely to experience damage now than they were 12 months ago.
And compared to 2006 when the RAC first began tracking these faults, drivers are now nearly twice as likely to experience pothole damage.
"While our data shows pothole damage to vehicles in the first three months of this year is lower than it was in the same period in 2023, it’s important not to lose sight of the bigger picture and the ongoing miserable state of our roads," Simon added.
“The analysis clearly shows drivers are now twice as likely to suffer a breakdown due to sub-standard road surfaces as they were in 2006.
“After all, all the cracks left by years of declining road maintenance budgets can’t easily be filled.
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"Even though the Government has given councils an additional £8.3bn for road maintenance from the cancellation of the northern leg of HS2, we know this is only enough to resurface 5,000 miles of roads – the equivalent of just 3% of all England’s local roads."