Pothole Damage Cost Drivers £1.7 Billion Last Year
A new report from Kwik Fit suggests that drivers have paid £1.7 billion in repairing pothole damage in the last year alone…
£1.7 Billion In Pothole Damage
Pothole damage cost British drivers a collective £1.7 billion over the past year. It represents a 35% increase over the £1.2 billion forked out by motorists in the previous year; not to mention £500 million more pre-pandemic. According to Kwik Fit, it means drivers are now paying more to repair damage caused by worn roads than ever before.
A survey conducted by the company found that 59% of drivers were hitting a pothole once a week. That’s up from 46% in the previous year. Some 46% of drivers also believe that local road conditions are getting worse. Just 16% of surveyed drivers believed that road conditions were improving; and Londoners were the most likely to report that they were.
Around 13.3 million drivers claim to have experienced pothole damage, with the average repair bill sitting at £132. Half of the damage concerned tyres. Wheels and suspensions took a joint second place. One in ten experienced damage to their engines.
‘Papering over the Cracks’
Roger Griggs, communications director at Kwik Fit, explained that the rising repair bills were a product of multiple factors. He said, “the total cost of potholes to the nation’s drivers is rising due to a combination of factors – worsening road surfaces, the impact of inflation on individual repair costs and car use getting back to near pre-pandemic levels”.
He added, “we all know there are huge demands on public finances at the moment, but the reality is that drivers have been consistently calling for a strategic plan to effectively bring our roads up to scratch for many years. It is not sufficient to just carry out emergency patching of the worst areas – this is always going to be a case of papering over the cracks”.
It Now Costs £98 To Fill An Average Diesel Family Car – https://autoserveclub.co.uk/blog/it-now-costs-98-to-fill-an-average-diesel-family-car/
More Than A Third Of Younger Drivers Don’t Wear Seatbelts – https://autoserve.co.uk/motoring-news/more-than-a-third-of-younger-drivers-dont-wear-seatbelts/
