Motorway works wrecking suspension

[DSK]

I overhauled the entire suspension on my C70 at 70,000 miles despite it not needing to be done with a Bilstein B12 kit, new lemforder arms, lemforder links, rods, mounts the lot, its just the way I am.

Every week I travel from home from London and back down on Sunday night and sadly the M1 is the most efficient route come what may. Anyone whose travelled on the M1 during the tedious smart motorway works over the past few years will know, the surface in almost all lanes had craters let alone pot holes and no matter what, usually you cannot avoid them. I'm also the sort of person who never puts a wheel on a kerb and swerves around pot holes, so its not general abuse that shortens the life of the suspension.

Now they have started them near East Midlands and between Northampton/Toddington ish. The surface around East Midlands is crap and no doubt the latter stretch will get worse too quickly.

The above has shot my suspension to the point at which at the next service around December, I'll be replacing everything except the Bilstein B12 Kit with new lemforder items all round, which, are not cheap. The car is now unstable due the play/wear/destruction of such components caused by these surfaces.

Is there a way/is it possible, to claim against the authorities for damage caused by such terrible surfaces which, never even seem to get repaired for several months and when they do, they just seem to lob a lump of tarmac into the craters. If so, where would one even go to begin a complaint.

[john.wigley]

Although I don't know exactly where you live, 'DSK', if you are using the M1 in the area that you mention, you are in my neck of the woods.

Yes, the roads are a disgrace, aren't they everywhere, but I fear that you are unlikely to obtain any compensation. The authorities are likely to argue 'wear and tear', and how do you prove otherwise?

There have been cases of people damaging their wheels in deep potholes reported (with accompanying photographs) in the local press. They may achieve publicity, but I don't think anyone has as yet received any recompense. If they had, it would open the floodgates to everyone and they would be inundated with claims.

If you really want to make a point, a letter to the 'Derby Telegraph', 'Nottingham Post' or 'Leicester Mercury' would not go amiss!

Regards. John.

[IainG]

Hi

There have been cases of people damaging their wheels in deep potholes reported (with accompanying photographs) in the local press. They may achieve publicity, but I don't think anyone has as yet received any recompense. If they had, it would open the floodgates to everyone and they would be inundated with claims.

My brother in Matlock claimed for a damaged tyre from a pothole. He got £80.
The pot hole had been reported about a week parevious and all the locals were complaining about it. The council spokesperson had said it had been repaired when it obviously hadn't. So my brother damaging his tyre in sort of proved it hadn't been repaired.
I was with him when it happened. At night, raining,just looked like a puddle but was 6" deep!
Iain

[DSK]

I'm in Nottingham, as result, detouring via the M40 etc is not an option.

I appreciate claiming may not be easy but, there are lots of people who live up this way or even further north but work down south and commute on the M1 weekly like me. There has to be a way of kicking up a fuss to at least get the surfaces patched half arsed.

[canis]

Originally Posted by DSK

I overhauled the entire suspension on my C70 at 70,000 miles despite it not needing to be done with a Bilstein B12 kit, new lemforder arms, lemforder links, rods, mounts the lot, its just the way I am.

Every week I travel from home from London and back down on Sunday night and sadly the M1 is the most efficient route come what may. Anyone whose travelled on the M1 during the tedious smart motorway works over the past few years will know, the surface in almost all lanes had craters let alone pot holes and no matter what, usually you cannot avoid them. I'm also the sort of person who never puts a wheel on a kerb and swerves around pot holes, so its not general abuse that shortens the life of the suspension.

Now they have started them near East Midlands and between Northampton/Toddington ish. The surface around East Midlands is crap and no doubt the latter stretch will get worse too quickly.

The above has shot my suspension to the point at which at the next service around December, I'll be replacing everything except the Bilstein B12 Kit with new lemforder items all round, which, are not cheap. The car is now unstable due the play/wear/destruction of such components caused by these surfaces.

Is there a way/is it possible, to claim against the authorities for damage caused by such terrible surfaces which, never even seem to get repaired for several months and when they do, they just seem to lob a lump of tarmac into the craters. If so, where would one even go to begin a complaint.

Urgh, I sure wish there was. I'd have something to say about all the bloody speed humps I hit every single day of the week.

If you read the government website, it tells that speed humps are a last resort solution to a speeding problem which cannot be controlled any other way. This is a blatant lie, since I have seen for myself roads built with speed humps installed before they're even trafficked by a single car.

The government website also tells that speed humps are a cost-effective solution. This is also a lie. The damage to personal vehicles, damage to council service vehicles, damage to private service vehicles, to delivery vehicles, to emergency response vehicles - all this will manifest in your bills, cost for items, and in your taxes. Damage to goods in transit, this will need tobe offset by somebody - and it'll be the end user who pays. Even if they are covered by an insurance, that insurance payout will need to be recovered somehow, it's not a magic money tree.

Then you got problems with emergency response times. I've got actualpersonal video footage of police cars being unable to pursue criminals because their fancy suspension can't cope with the speed humps, over which the stolen Astra simply bouncies at high speed.

Then you've got the inevitable driver distraction, that can't help safety at all. Pedestrians who presume the raised section means they're allowed to cross even though they've no right of way at all - confusion resulting from the car's tendency to slow for the approaching bump and the pedestrian miscontrueing this as a right to cross. Talking of crossing roads, it's much harder to cross traffic which is spaced for 30mph distances, but slowed to 20mph. The gaps are too wide and the pedestrian doesn't get a chance.

But let's be honest here. We're talking about a country where driving through red lights brazenly goes unenforced. Parking on double yellows was always there, but parking on white zig-zags is now common too. Many on this very forum will tell about how speed limits are "abitrary" and that they don't consider their actions to be criminal.

Sorry to be pessimistic - but you've got no hope whatsoever of recovering any money from those tight-fisted b*stards in parliament. They don't care about you, me or anyone else but themselves. And as we can see by the speed hump expose above - they're full of sh1t, and they know it, and they know you and I know it too but they also know they've locked and bolted the backdoor and you have no means of changing anything except to blow the whistle on these sick-minded, perverse logic, no-brains with the decision making capability of toddlers in a tantrum.

All you can do is keep shouting about it until people start to take notice about who our country's leaders really are, and for that, I applaud you. It's obscene they've put millions of people to such extreme congestion for the sake of some poxey speed cameras on roads which aren't even dangerous to begin with. The cost to industry and commerce is staggering, and personal inconvenience too. You can't really blame people for presuming speed cameras are nothing more than a money-spinner when the evidence points to exactly that and nothing else.

Yet for some reason, nobody protests. Nobody revolts. Everybody will go out there and dutifully pay their taxes, and dutifully vote the binary flip-flop politics we've seen certainly for all of my life, and nothing will change. Boiled frog theory indeed - as gradually ever more rights andliberties are removed.

Remember the Citizens Band slow drive? Now if we all did that ... then things mihgt change. Let's bring London to a standstill. Let's hit the big banks and politicians right where it hurts. Force them to act to the will of the people they claim to represent. Then we might see some proper investment in a country's infrastructure instead of useless vanity projects like HS2.

[john.wigley]

It is quite a leap from compensation for pothole damage to the HS2 'canis', (post #5, above) but I find myself in agreement with much of what you say.

You are right that people on the whole drive more aggressively today, running red lights and speeding, as you say.

Only the other day, Derbyshire Live carried a video taken from a car being driven at the prevailing 40 MPH limit along the A52 Brian Clough Way Derby to Nottingham dual carriage way. It showed cars overtaking from just above the limit up to an estimated 70 MPH. John Butler of the Derby IAM was commentating; it is well worth watching if it is still available.

The paper has also recently carried reports of drivers fleeing the Police who have topped 100 MPH in a 30 zone and 130 in a 70 before being stopped. It is not uncommon for such drivers to also be disqualified, have no insurance and be over the drink drive limit. Clearly, they have no respect for the law as it applies to you and I.

I also agree with you regarding the folly that is the HS2, but as that is a politically sensitive subject, will offer no further comment. I think it was Paul ('GVM') who said in another thread that politics touches every aspect of our lives.

Towards the end of your post you say that "All you can do is keep shouting about it ... " and this is precisely why I advised 'DSK' to drop a line to the local paper. I think 'IainG's brother (post # 3, above) was fortunate in obtaining recompense for a damaged tyre, but can't help feeling that this was the exception that proves the rule. Like you, I also think that 'DSK' has little chance of recovering his losses.

By the way, and forgive my ignorance, but what is the 'Boiled Frog' theory? I don't think I've come across that one before.

Regards, John.

[canis]

The Boiled Frog theory, I don't know if it's actually true and testing it will be cruel, but the idea goes that if you heat up a frog slowly enough it won't realise it's in danger until it's too late to escape and boils to death.

It's a similee which is often applied to a gradual reduction in civil liberties. The Criminal Justic Bill is a good example. To crack down on raves, which were big news at the time. Glastonbury could never have happened, and it's why Stone Henge was "defended" so violently in '86 - to prevent it becomming another Notting Hill by achieving legitimacy.

But this is all off-topic. It might be a giant leap, but all things are interconnected. They fix a pot-hole and install a speed hump. What kind of nonsense is this?

EDIT: I'm sorry. It just really grinds my gears when people are speeding around on the streets my kids play on, but they're installing cameras on motorways - at massive expense - to catch people doing 80mph.