Father says pothole to blame for son's crash

A man who believes a pothole was responsible for his son's car flipping over on a road in Derbyshire has called on the county council to prioritise road resurfacing across the county.

The crash happened in Kedleston Road between Weston Underwood and Quarndon in May.

Gary Stanbrook said his 19-year-old son Archie was driving along the road - which has a 60mph speed limit - when his Peugeot struck a pothole, causing it to skid and overturn into a hedge.

Derbyshire County Council said it was increasing preventative treatments on its roads but demand for repairs had spiked during the winter period.

Documents obtained via a Freedom of Information request show the road had been subject to numerous pothole complaints from the public in the 12 months running up to the crash.

One member of the public wrote to the county council claiming to have seen ducks using a pothole as a pond.

Archie had been driving to work when the crash happened and told his father he was being careful to stay under the speed limit because of the condition of the road.

But after feeling the wheel shift as if hitting a hole in the road when going around a corner, the car skidded and flipped over into the hedge of a field running alongside the road.

He phoned his father who photographed the pothole when he arrived at the scene and the two inspected the possible cause.

The county council carried out repairs to the road the day after the accident.

Gary told the BBC he had already approached the council with concerns about the "extremely hazardous" conditions on the road in the months prior to the accident.

He described how he found his son in a field next to the road "in shock" and "picking up bits of plastic" following the accident, leaving him "beyond words".

Gary measured the pothole and said it was 18in (45cm) long, 13in (33cm) wide and 4in (10cm) deep.

He blames poor repairs for drivers' difficulties as well as existing potholes.

"I've seen so many near-misses with people swerving to miss areas where a lot of potholes have been replaced. It's like driving over multiple speed bumps," he said.

"Pothole repairs don't seem to last very long... as soon as they patch a hole up, there's another one opening.

"I think [Derbyshire County Council] need to make it a priority to do full [road] resurfacing."

The father and son are in the early days of starting the process of seeking compensation from the council, which they expect to be in the thousands.

According to an expert inspection of the vehicle, "impact damage" was noted in a number of areas to the front of the car, including a wheel and tyre, and the inspector told the BBC a check of the wheel in isolation found evidence of pothole damage.

Documents obtained by Gary via a Freedom of Information request show the road had been subject to numerous complaints from the public in the 12 months running up to the accident.

One member of the public wrote to the county council claiming to have seen "ducks swimming in [a] pothole, it was that big and full of water".

Another complained of a "whole series of potholes where [the] road has previously been repaired. Really deep... cars are having to take to the middle of the road".

Charlotte Hill, the county council's cabinet member for highways, said: "Unfortunately, we saw a large increase in potholes over the winter period with high levels of demand for repairs.

"We increased our resources accordingly with 34 reactive teams working to repair as much as possible and provide a prompt response once we become aware of any issues.

"We continue to increase the amount of preventative maintenance treatments to stop potholes and have also scaled up the use of innovative solutions to carry out more durable pothole repairs."

Additional documents obtained by the BBC through Freedom of Information laws show the council has paid out well over £1m in pothole compensation over the past four years.

The bulk of the payments were made between June 2023 and May 2024, when almost £750,000 was paid out to local residents.

The time period coincides with Storm Babet, which brought consistent and heavy rain across Derbyshire in October 2023.

The figure has come down significantly in the past year between the same period, with about £48,000 paid out in compensation to drivers.

The figures for the past year were welcomed by the RAC, which has in the past highlighted Derbyshire's roads for being among the worst in the country.

"We hope this is due to an improvement in the quality of the council's roads," said the organisation's head of policy Simon Williams.

"Just filling potholes, however, is not the answer; more preventative maintenance, such as surface dressing, needs to be carried out so that potholes don't form in the first place.

"With roads that have gone beyond reasonable repair, there's no option but to completely resurface them at a far greater cost, which is why we favour prevention rather than cure."

Listen to BBC Radio Derby on Sounds and follow BBC Derby on Facebook, on X, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk or via WhatsApp on 0808 100 2210.