Grandfather’s plea followingpothole crash

Jenny Foster was driving her Toyota Yaris along Netherfield Hill with her 13-year-old grandson in the passenger seat when the accident happened last Saturday afternoon.

Now her husband, David Foster, is calling for East Sussex County Council to do more to repair Rother’s crumbling roads.

Mr Foster, of The Oast, Henley Down Farm, Catsfield, said: “It’s now June and I think it’s high time to repair the ravages of winter.

“Everyone who visits us down here has said these are the worst roads in the country.

“And I’m inclined to agree with them.”

Mrs Foster’s car was struck by a BMW heading in the opposite direction after the vehicle swerved to avoid a pothole, which had been marked by a cone.

There was little time to react and the cars collided head-on, with the force sending Mrs Foster’s vehicle spinning and pushing the back of the car up a bank.

Emergency services raced to the scene and paramedics, fearing Mrs Foster may have suffered back or neck injuries, placed her on a spinal board.

Mrs Foster was shaken and dazed after suffering a bang to the head in the accident.

Mr Foster said: “My wife was taken by ambulance to the Conquest and very luckily nothing was found to be broken, but there were lots of nasty bruises.

“After full body scans and neck scans, we took her home.”

Grandson Charlie was bruised but avoided serious injury in the accident.

The BMW driver, a 48-year-old man from Guestling, and his passenger were unhurt.

Mr Foster says he believes the couple’s car is “probably a write off”.

It is not the first time their car has been damaged by potholes.

Back in January, the Toyota suffered three burst tyres in two days due to potholes in the road near the couple’s home.

At the time, Mr and Mrs Foster applied to East Sussex County Council for compensation, but failed.

And Mr Foster said he doubted a new bid for compensation would be successful.

He said: “I’m not optimistic.

“My last claim was dismissed after three months and I do not think they will do anything about this one.

“They knew about it and I have told our local councillor, who is a county councillor, and we will see what happens.

“They must have known about it to put a traffic cone in the pothole.”

Following the accident, the council assured the couple that contractors would fill in the offending pothole, an estimated two feet in diameter and six inches deep, this week.

Roger Williams, East Sussex County Council head of highways, said: “We were made aware of the pothole on Netherfield Hill by one of our highway stewards on Tuesday June 4 and the steward placed a traffic cone at the location to warn motorists of the danger.

“The pothole was located on the edge of the carriageway, not in the middle of the road, and motorists approaching on that side of the road would have had at least 50m visibility of the cone, allowing them time to reduce their speed and manoeuvre around the cone safely.

“We have a system of prioritising potholes according to their size and location, and this particular pothole was classed as the second highest priority.

“This means it must be repaired within five working days, and in this case the repair was carried out within that time.

“To put this into context, we have repaired 33,000 potholes since January and have already fixed three times the number of potholes this year than in each of the past three years.”

“We’re sorry to hear about Mrs Foster’s accident and we wish her a speedy recovery.”

Battle Police have confirmed that no action will be taken against either driver involved in the collision.