Pothole carnage on the M4: 20 cars wrecked days before crater caused havoc on the M25
8 October 2024, 14:07
Potholes on two of the UK’s busiest motorways caused similar scenes of chaos in a week described by the AA’s president as “unheard of”.
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A “massive” pothole damaged 20 cars on the M4 just days before a cavity caused almost identical carnage on the M25 last week.
On September 27, motorists lined up their crippled vehicles along the hard shoulder of the M4 during the night near the junction for Slough in Berkshire, according to reports.
Just five days later a pothole on the M25 wiped out 58 cars leaving drivers stranded for hours on Britain's busiest motorway.
The carbon copy scenes have been described by AA president Edmund King as “unheard of” as he told MailOnline it was “lucky nobody was hurt”.
Photos from the scene of the first pothole have shown a long queue of damaged vehicles lined up on the busy M4.
A company CEO, who remained anonymous, blew two tyres of his £49,000 Mercedes EQA, which can cost around £320 each to replace
They said: “There were twenty or so other vehicles in the same situation. It was a massive hole in lane two near junction five.”
Mr King said: “One massive motorway pothole taking out twenty cars and creating total carnage is bad enough, but two motorway incidents in the space of a few days is unheard of.
“It is just lucky that nobody got hurt in these pothole crater incidents, but we know that many drivers will have been hurt in their wallets.
“No doubt many of these drivers will be seeking compensation from National Highways. The problem for drivers at night or in heavy rain is that you just can't see the potholes and the first warning is that awful sound when the alloy hits the hole.”
Just five days later another sizable pothole damaged 58 vehicles on the M25 between junctions 12 and 13, according to a local tyre company.
Footage from one road-user showed a similar scene of a row of vehicles in the hard shoulder with their hazard lights on after being forced off the motorway in Surrey during rush hour traffic.
Alloy wheels were cracked and tyres punctured, with some drivers reportedly forking out £700 to repair their mangled motors.
Disgruntled people were left between Staines and Chertsey standing in the pouring rain for hours as they waited for repair vehicles to arrive.
Lorry driver Blaine Conway, 39, was making his way home after finishing a night shift when he heard a “massive bang” as he accelerated around a bend of the motorway.
The impact punctured one of the tyres on his Vauxhall van as he told MailOnline: “I immediately thought ‘that's going to cost me’.”
Mr Conway ended up walking an eight-mile round trip to buy a tyre which he carried back to his van following the £200 charge he was quoted by one mobile repair company.
“I was walking up the hard shoulder and people were looking at me thinking ‘that poor bloke’,” he said.
“It started to rain (when I went to get the tyre) and as soon as I got back in the van it stopped.”
