Did potholes cause the death of a 16-year-old car passenger?

I wanted to comment on a truly shocking car accident inquest, yesterday, into a mother who hit a pothole while driving her car. The mother lost control of the car and her 16 year old son died in a water-filled ditch. The circumstances of this accident brought tears to my eyes. The mother fought heroically to save the boy, but to no avail. This is the second death that I know about due to potholes, and the local authorities slowness to act to repair them. We can readily and eagerly spend money on new wars, but we can’t repair our roads. It’s a national disgrace and these politicians that do nothing are as bad as murderers. People die because of potholes. When a politician or members of his family die because of an unrepaired pothole I suppose something will be done about it.

Asked on 3 April 2011 by LD, Weybridge

Answered by Honest John

Some county councils, such as Nottingham, have set up websites similar to www.fixmystreet.co.uk and are seemingly on top of the problem. Others simply lack the funds. You have to remember that Britain is now a third world country in far greater debt than it was at the end of WWII. Every man, woman and child in the UK individually owes £77,000 to the rest of the world, thanks to Gordon Brown. (Mostly, ironically, to China, where 1,000,000,000 people still have to live on less than $1 a day.) Cameron and Osborne are very conscious of this. But getting the country to understand that it has been living in Cloud Cuckoo Land for the last 13 years and simply cannot afford what people have grown to expect is another matter entirely.

Tags: repairs safety potholes

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