‘Drivers have dodged the pothole bullet’

The RAC says the number of breakdowns it attended in the first quarter of 2024, due to bad road surfaces, represents ‘a clear sign that the UK is suffering a pothole epidemic as roads continue to crumble’.

Analysis from the driving services company shows 7,904 pothole-related call outs between January and March 2024.

While this represents a year-on-year fall of 22%, the RAC attributes the fall to milder weather.

For this reason, the RAC doesn’t believe the decrease in pothole-related breakdowns – damaged shock absorbers, broken suspension springs and distorted wheels – is a sign of road conditions improving. 

In fact the RAC Pothole Index, which measures the likelihood of suffering one of these call-outs, 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 76% more likely to experience pothole damage.

Simon Williams, RAC head of policy, said: “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. 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.

“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.”

---