'Loch Ness-side pothole left me with monster bill'
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A PENSIONER had to stump up for a hefty dental bill after driving into a monster pothole near Loch Ness that was so deep it jolted out a front tooth crown.
And on top of the dental damage, Alexander Dow’s Volkswagen Golf suffered a burst nearside tyre, a shattered wheel and possible suspension damage.
Now he is planning putting the bite on Bear Scotland and claiming against them for £325 of dental work and the damage to his car.
Mr Dow (72), of Westhill, Inverness, said: “It was dark at the time and I had no chance of avoiding the water-filled hole.
“I think my teeth snapped together with the jolt of hitting the pothole and my crown broke.
“After pulling in I went back to look at the hole with my torch and took photographs of it. There was different coloured tarmac scattered around it so I think it must have been repaired, but the patch had been unsatisfactory and had broken up.”
The incident happened on February 2 shortly after 9pm. The pothole was 100 yards south of Port Clair and about 2.3 miles south of Invermoriston.
Mr Dow managed to drive with his damaged tyre and wheel to the relative safety of a nearby lay-by and soon found he was not alone in falling victim to the mega pothole.
He was shortly joined by a van driver from Beauly, an SSE worker in a hire car and an Inverness businessman in a Mercedes, both of whose vehicles had all suffered damaged tyres or wheels or both.
The Mercedes driver was particularly unfortunate. He damaged both nearside wheels and the braking system in the high performance car, to the extent that a recovery vehicle had to be called out to get his car back to Inverness.
Mr Dow added: “I have sent off for a claim form from Bear but have not received it yet, and my garage is checking for suspension damage.” A spokeswoman for Bear Scotland, which is responsible for trunk road maintenance in the Highlands, said: “This pothole was reported on the evening of February 2 and an emergency team was deployed immediately to a carry out a repair. They were on site within 35 minutes.
“Unfortunately at this time of year the cold and wet winter weather, particularly the freeze and thaw cycle, can have a serious impact on road surfaces leading to the rapid development of potholes such as this.”
Road maintenance such as pothole repairs form a large part of Bear’s work. Weekly safety inspections are carried on all trunk roads by its inspection teams to identify any defects requiring attention.
North politicians are begging the government for more cash to repair roads ravaged by wear and winter, with Highland Council’s community services chairman Allan Henderson saying he nearly lost his teeth this week driving into a “crater” on the A82 in Glencoe.
Independent councillor for Aird and Loch Ness and Inverness Provost Helen Carmichael said: “I think we put an extra £2 million into roads when we came into administration last year.
“But sorting the north roads is going to take big money from the government. We would need many millions to cover all the potholes.
“Unfortunately, we do not seem to get whole stretches surfaced so often, just areas patched up. Road repairs is a huge strain on an already strained budget.”
