Seven other cars had already hit the monster pothole and had pulled over into a nearby lay-by leaving the driver struggling to find space for his own damaged motor on the Welsh road.
3
3
The hole, in the B4270 in the Vale of Glamorgan, has been repeatedly fixed by the council, but they say rain had weakened it at a “far faster rate than anticipated”.
When the driver got out and inspected the damage to his car, he saw the pothole had caused a damaged rim and a burst tyre.
He normally travelled that route to work and said he had never had his car damaged by a pothole before.
The driver said he had been aware of the pothole prior to travelling on Thursday, but was left “shocked” with how big it had become.
He said: “I was driving to work just like a normal day, at around 6am, and then I hit this pothole.
“It was like a crater on the road. I was going around the corner, there were like seven cars all on each side of the lay-by.
“They had all been affected by the same pothole – some had punctures, others had buckled rims, one had an issue with its airbag so they couldn’t move the car.
“There was not much space in the lay-by, so I parked my car around that area.
“My car had a damaged rim and the tyre had completely exploded. Within a couple of seconds of hitting it, there was a slash on the side of the wall – the tyre had completely gone.
“I thought I had hit something on the road, and as I spoke to everybody else, they explained there was a huge hole in the road and that was what had caused the issue. I was a bit shocked to see how big it was.”
The driver said council staff promptly came to repair the road.
But he said that more needs to be done to ensure road safety.
“I travel on that road nearly every day, and that pothole has been there for a while,” he said.
“They had filled it in a couple of times, but it keeps coming back up. The roads driving that way have got a lot worse, I fear they’ll only get much worse.
He added: “I felt a bit annoyed because you pay so much tax to get the road fixed. And when they do fix it, it seems they only last 10 minutes.
“I think the other drivers that had been affected by the same pothole were concerned because if a bike was going to hit that, I wouldn’t want to think what would’ve happened. I was a bit shocked to see how big it was.”
In response, the Vale of Glamorgan County Council has said that further maintenance work is now underway.
A Vale of Glamorgan Council spokesperson said: “The Council was made aware of this defect and promptly attended the site with our external contractor to carry out a repair.
“Unfortunately, it seems heavy recent rainfall weakened that repair at a far faster rate than anticipated. Further maintenance work has now been undertaken to repair the pothole and Highways Officers continue to monitor the situation.”
3